November 6 - Point Roberts revisited

November is a challenging month for bird-watching for weekend birders like myself. There have been good reports of exciting birds, but the weather has been very wet. On this Sunday morning, the weather was good and there was actually some light for photography.

A Yellow-billed Loon had been seen at Point Roberts, a very rare visitor from the north. There was one possible brief sighting just as I arrived, but the bird dove and never reappeared. Loons can stay under for long times and cover great distances before surfacing.

I took advantage of the good conditions to get some better photos of birds I had seen this year. This first of these was the Red-breasted Merganser, a common sight at Point Roberts in Fall/Winter. My only photos had been flyovers a couple of weeks earlier. This time they were in the water fairly close to shore. I believe this is a female on the left and a male in non-breeding plumage on the right.


Red-Breasted Merganser - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts Wa

Red-Breasted Merganser - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts Wa

Next was a male Harlequin Duck. They're always a challenge to photograph as the face is quite dark and the eyes are dark as well. This ones looking at the camera, you can just make out the eyes.

Harlequin Duck - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts Wa

As I was scoping for the loon, a flock of Sanderlings flew by and landed close to my position. I love the looks of these birds with their distinctive grey and white basic plumage.  
Sanderling - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts Wa

I like to colours in this next shot.

Sanderling - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts Wa

While scoping for the rare loon, I did see a couple of other species. Here's a digiscope with my IPhone. This is a Common Murre, a medium size Alcid. The spend most of their life in the water, only coming to land to breed. 

Common Murre - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts Wa

The next bird was the best of the day, a group of six Pacific Loons about 100 meters offshore. Once again the photo quality is not the best, but this is the first time I've seen this species since 2009, when it was a lifer. This was taken with the Nikon at 83X magnification. The key field marks are the rounded head shape and straight border area on the neck.

Pacific Loon - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts Wa

Much closer to shore was a Common Loon where you can see the flattened head and crooked neck stripe.

Common Loon - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts Wa

Another good day at Point Roberts. The Yellow-billed Loon is still being reported as this is written, hopefully there will be a blog post for it coming!