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Female, lovingly referred to as a Queen Eider. Grays Harbor County, Washington, US
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Several dozen King Eiders moving along the coast. Most staying several hundred yards offshore. Hundreds of Common Eiders also seen but not photographed. They show a great deal of white in the plumage unlike the Kings. This time of year the eiders are mostly in eclipse plumage so not much to look at. Barrow!? What am I doing in Barrow, Alaska, you ask. Wellâ¦itâs like this. I have a friend in Austin named Isaac who is a crazy bird photographer like I am. A couple of months ago he sent me an email saying he wanted to go to Barrow for a long weekend to try to photograph Rossâs Gull, one of the rarest gulls in North America. Apparently the species migrates from Siberia across parts of the Arctic Ocean in early October and sometimes can be seen in numbers in Barrow. I had seen the species once before, in Canada in 1988: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151409 but I thought, what the heck. Sounds like an adventure. Very few birds will be around in Barrow, but we might see some Rossâs Gulls which is a super fine bird. So, to make a long story short, we left Austin at 7 PM October 8 and 18 hours of airplanes and airports later found ourselves in Barrow, Alaska where it was 24 degrees F., with a 20 mph north wind. Just balmy conditions. We will have two and a half days here before heading home. Yeah, I knowâ¦totally insane!
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Several dozen King Eiders moving along the coast. Most staying several hundred yards offshore. Hundreds of Common Eiders also seen but not photographed. They show a great deal of white in the plumage unlike the Kings. This time of year the eiders are mostly in eclipse plumage so not much to look at. Barrow!? What am I doing in Barrow, Alaska, you ask. Wellâ¦itâs like this. I have a friend in Austin named Isaac who is a crazy bird photographer like I am. A couple of months ago he sent me an email saying he wanted to go to Barrow for a long weekend to try to photograph Rossâs Gull, one of the rarest gulls in North America. Apparently the species migrates from Siberia across parts of the Arctic Ocean in early October and sometimes can be seen in numbers in Barrow. I had seen the species once before, in Canada in 1988: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151409 but I thought, what the heck. Sounds like an adventure. Very few birds will be around in Barrow, but we might see some Rossâs Gulls which is a super fine bird. So, to make a long story short, we left Austin at 7 PM October 8 and 18 hours of airplanes and airports later found ourselves in Barrow, Alaska where it was 24 degrees F., with a 20 mph north wind. Just balmy conditions. We will have two and a half days here before heading home. Yeah, I knowâ¦totally insane!
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Several dozen King Eiders moving along the coast. Most staying several hundred yards offshore. Hundreds of Common Eiders also seen but not photographed. They show a great deal of white in the plumage unlike the Kings. This time of year the eiders are mostly in eclipse plumage so not much to look at. Barrow!? What am I doing in Barrow, Alaska, you ask. Wellâ¦itâs like this. I have a friend in Austin named Isaac who is a crazy bird photographer like I am. A couple of months ago he sent me an email saying he wanted to go to Barrow for a long weekend to try to photograph Rossâs Gull, one of the rarest gulls in North America. Apparently the species migrates from Siberia across parts of the Arctic Ocean in early October and sometimes can be seen in numbers in Barrow. I had seen the species once before, in Canada in 1988: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151409 but I thought, what the heck. Sounds like an adventure. Very few birds will be around in Barrow, but we might see some Rossâs Gulls which is a super fine bird. So, to make a long story short, we left Austin at 7 PM October 8 and 18 hours of airplanes and airports later found ourselves in Barrow, Alaska where it was 24 degrees F., with a 20 mph north wind. Just balmy conditions. We will have two and a half days here before heading home. Yeah, I knowâ¦totally insane!
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Several dozen King Eiders moving along the coast. Most staying several hundred yards offshore. Hundreds of Common Eiders also seen but not photographed. They show a great deal of white in the plumage unlike the Kings. This time of year the eiders are mostly in eclipse plumage so not much to look at. Barrow!? What am I doing in Barrow, Alaska, you ask. Wellâ¦itâs like this. I have a friend in Austin named Isaac who is a crazy bird photographer like I am. A couple of months ago he sent me an email saying he wanted to go to Barrow for a long weekend to try to photograph Rossâs Gull, one of the rarest gulls in North America. Apparently the species migrates from Siberia across parts of the Arctic Ocean in early October and sometimes can be seen in numbers in Barrow. I had seen the species once before, in Canada in 1988: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151409 but I thought, what the heck. Sounds like an adventure. Very few birds will be around in Barrow, but we might see some Rossâs Gulls which is a super fine bird. So, to make a long story short, we left Austin at 7 PM October 8 and 18 hours of airplanes and airports later found ourselves in Barrow, Alaska where it was 24 degrees F., with a 20 mph north wind. Just balmy conditions. We will have two and a half days here before heading home. Yeah, I knowâ¦totally insane!
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This bird was 300+ meters offshore and even with 1000mm of camera lens the images are very poor. I guess it might be a White-winged Scoter, but I'm not sure at all. The white seems to be oddly shaped for a scoter, but the bird was way out and the wind blowing 30 mph. It seems to have an orangish colored bill. It drifted by in the fast wind and current and we lost sight of it soon. Any ID thoughts appreciated.
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This bird was 300+ meters offshore and even with 1000mm of camera lens the images are very poor. I guess it might be a White-winged Scoter, but I'm not sure at all. The white seems to be oddly shaped for a scoter, but the bird was way out and the wind blowing 30 mph. It seems to have an orangish colored bill. It drifted by in the fast wind and current and we lost sight of it soon. Any ID thoughts appreciated.
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a sparse but steady stream of King Eiders moved by all day. These are probably females
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female
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Female
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