Scaup in June?
Two of these male Scaup were floating with their heads tucked into their wings off the Open Circle viewpoint at sunset. One of them very briefly raised its head, allowing the photo above. Many hundreds of these birds stopped in the North Basin (the cove east of the park) on their way to their wintering grounds last fall, and many hundreds stopped here for a rest stop on their way back north to their breeding grounds in March and April. But in the middle of June??
Birders use the label “vagrant” for individual birds that follow a different path than their flock. I really don’t like that tag. That makes it sound like a bad thing.
