The scoter was there all afternoon today foraging among Western Grebes
in front of Island Park Dam. It was swimming around picking at the
surface and once it got chased a short distance by a Western Grebe. It
wasn’t as close and I only had 8x binocs with me but it definitely has
dark brown extending well out onto the base of the bill. Bill is getting
orange and has some pale whitish area on it. Nape is solidly dark brown
as is the entire upperparts. Flanks are paler brown contrasting slightly
but noticeably with back. Eye appeared pale/whitish but it was too far
to be sure if it was just the iris. I didn’t notice any white around the
eye yesterday. A very neat looking bird.

Cliff

—
Cliff and Lisa Weisse
Island Park, Idaho
cliffandlisa@octobersetters.com