Harlequin Duck
“Harlequin Ducks (Two Lights and Fort Williams, Common Eiders, at least one King Eider (Dyer Point), Black and White-winged Scoters (Crescent Beach), Pintails (Ferry Beach), Red-breasted Mergansers, Red-necked Grebes, and numerous Common Loons.”
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Ten of the 11 passages, oldest first.
Harlequin Ducks (Two Lights and Fort Williams, Common Eiders, at least one King Eider (Dyer Point), Black and White-winged Scoters (Crescent Beach), Pintails (Ferry Beach), Red-breasted Mergansers, Red-necked Grebes, and numerous Common Loons.
As for the coastline there were forty or more Common Eiders working the exposed, rough conditions, a couple pairs of Buffleheads, a single Surf Scoter, three Long-tailed Ducks, two Black Guillemots, and four Harlequin Ducks.
Other noteworthy mentioning’s at these two locations include, Buffleheads, Surf Scoters, White-winged Scoters, Horned Grebes Long-tailed Ducks, Great Cormorants, and the fantastically adorned Harlequin duck – seemingly at home amid the tumult of the crashing seas.
Later that same day on Trundy Point I spotted three Common Goldeneyes, the aforementioned Black Guillemot, two Harlequin Ducks, Common Eiders, a Common Loon, Black and Surf Scoters (aka skunk-headed coots) and nineteen Purple Sandpipers.
On December 1 from the rocky headland of Two Lights State Park I watched a flock of eleven hardy Harlequin Ducks, including two extravagantly adorned males, foraging for mollusks and crustaceans along the exposed coastline below.
In the last days of February off of Dyer Point, Trundy Point, Pond Cove and Fort Williams I saw the following - Common Loons, Common Eiders, Harlequin Ducks, Long-tailed Ducks, Common Goldeneyes, Black and Surf Scoters and Red-breasted Mergansers.
Later that same day I spotted nine Harlequin Ducks off Trundy Point along with Black Scoters, Long-tailed Ducks, Red-breasted Mergansers and two Black Guillemots.
The following day in Two Lights State Park I came across a Hermit Thrush in one of the denser thicket areas and observed three Harlequin Ducks working the rough water along the rocky coastline.
Somewhere along our mission we came upon a flock of hardy Harlequin Ducks, including five females and two handsomely adorned blue, chestnut and white colored males who were boldly foraging for mollusks and crustaceans deep below the tumultuous seas.
My limited notes over the last two weeks include, on the chilly morning of November 16 I spotted two female Hooded Mergansers in the Pond Brook Corridor flashing their warm cinnamon crests and on November 15 along Trundy and Dyer Points, several flocks of diving Harlequin Ducks…
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On December 7, scrambling along the rocky shoreline from Dyer Point to Two Lights State Park, I encountered three separate flocks of hardy Harlequin Ducks.