Chasing a female King Eider at Point Lookout--Town Park - 11/30/24

Read this post as my mom and I visit Point Lookout--Town Park on Nov 30, 2024 to find a continuing King Eider.

On Saturday, November 30, 2024, my mom and I went to Point Lookout--Town Park to try and look for a female King Eider, continuing in a Common Eider flock.

Arriving at the Point Lookout parking lot at 1:55pm, we made our way toward the beach. Feeling cold, my mom decided to stay on a platform while I went down to the beach near the water to the exact spot where the eider was last seen.

As I approached the area where it was seen (near a strip of jetty rocks), I saw two observers looking at a flock of about 40 Common Eiders. It was too windy to communicate, so I just payed close attention on the eider flock. I was already happy as there were several male Common Eiders in that flock, which is a “gender lifer” for me.

I was looking for a female eider that was all-brown, and has a black bill with a “smile”. The birds weren’t that close to us, so it was really hard to tell if there was a female King Eider with the female Common Eiders. The coldness of the high winds was approaching, so I knew that this was going to be one of those ID-in-car birds. I took at least one photo of every single female eider there was in good light. After quite a while of doing so, I walked back to where my mom was, and we walked back to the car.

Back in the car, I examined each and every one of my 200-ish photos, showing that I did indeed photograph a female King Eider. Though my photos weren’t the best, they were still enough to identify the bird. And besides, I don’t think I would’ve went back to the beach regardless!

Aside from the King Eider, it seemed that I also photographed a FOS male Harlequin Duck that was tucked in. My photo of it was really blurry, but I was able to ID it due to the large amount of white stripes around its body.

eBird checklist - 30 Nov 2024 - Point Lookout--Town Park

Thanks a lot to my mom for taking me to Pt. Lookout today. Though it’s close to us, it was really cold. That didn’t stop us from having fun, though! I hope today’s blog post was entertaining for all you viewers! Thanks and see you in the next one!

~ Pranav