ML636263176

פרטי השורה

***Very Rare. Watched through the scope for a couple minutes together with 2 Common Loons. Michael's notes (he was the one who spotted it first, and got some of the best scope views): "The bird immediately stood out as different from the Common Loons next to it by its small size and pale gray back of the head. I initially assumed it must be a Red-throated, but the dark throat looked way too extensive--the throat appeared black (which could have been just a trick of the light), but the color went all the way up to the bill and face, and it seemed like the face itself was dark. All other Red-throated Loons I've seen have had very pale-looking faces, and this looked very different (though, those have almost all been in non-breeding plumage, so it's possible I'm not appreciating what a breeding-plumage Red-throated could look like...). The body looked very dark with clear white marks on the back. It was too far away and bobbing in the waves too much to make out whether there was any white on the flanks." We attempted to follow it as it dove and resurfaced a couple of times, and several of the students got decent scope views and distant binocular views. We didn't have any long lenses capable of getting a good picture, but Michael did manage a single digiscoped photo (that unfortunately doesn't show much detail). After a few minutes we lost track of it during one of its dives, and then spend the next half hour or so scanning unsuccessfully until we had to leave. Update: after contacting the birding community we discovered that other birders managed to spot the bird later in the day, and confirmed it as a Pacific Loon, so we're changing the ID from "loon sp." to Pacific.