An apparent WWSC was observed at 4:15 this afternoon flying NEerly about 100 m offshore 1-2 m above Lake Superior.  Location was the 9400 block of Congdon Blvd (North Shore Scenic Drive), which is 1/4 mi SW of the McQuade Safe Harbor.  Five minutes later a similar observation was made by the other spouse, but the bird was flying SWerly.  

We say this was an "apparent" WWSC since both sightings were by naked eye.  The rectangular white patch on the secondaries on an otherwise completely black bird were pretty obvious.

A walking scan (with optics) failed to refind the bird(s) within a half-mile in either direction over the next half-hour.

The sighting is unusual since WWSC is "occasional" in winter in MN:
   http://www.moumn.org/cgi-bin/occurrence.pl?season=Winter#ducks
therefore an RFD will be submitted:
   http://www.moumn.org/docs/rqd.pdf

Frank & Kathi Berdan


      

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