Lake Pleasant keeps turning out to be a great location to find rare waterbirds in Maricopa and Yavapai Counties. The latest awesome one that I got to see there was a Black Scoter, which was found by Marceline Vandewater. This was the second time already in this early 2020 that Marceline has found an awesome bird that I've been able to chase. While I've seen a decent share of Black Scoters in Arizona and elsewhere, this was only the second time I would have the chance to see an adult male of the species. My first Black Scoter was an adult male at the Glendale Recharge Ponds in November of 2010, and about ten years later on an afternoon after work I'd get to see my second adult male bird. This time would give me the chance to get much better photographs, and when I got to the lake and saw the Scoter, I made sure to take my time to enjoy the bird and take some pictures. A Black Scoter and Lake Pleasant was a great way to spend a few hours of an afternoon. Thanks Marceline!
When Black Scoters exercise their wings on the water, they have a distinctive motion where they lower their heads while wing flapping. This is a stand out trait from other scoters.
During the course of this bird's stay, many birders got to watch it from an easy access point at Lake Pleasant where it was just east of the Ten Lane Boat Ramp. When I went I realized I didn't have my scope with me, but a scope wasn't needed to enjoy this bird.
The one bird that would usually hang around the Black Scoter was this female Common Goldeneye.
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