The King at the Canal

It's funny how some things that you are looking forward to can end up being average while unexpected things can become highlights of your whole week. As I said yesterday, I went the Dropkick Murphys and it can best be described as "okay".

After work today on a whim Laurie and I went to the Cape Cod Canal. There has been a King Eider there for a few days. A King Eider is a big ocean going duck. This species breeds up in the tundra and winters along the coast of Alaska and Newfoundland.  They do not live around here. Usually one will show up somewhere on the North Shore of Massachusetts every year. Going to Rockport and Gloucester to see a possible duck really isn't a good gamble. Also, they usually seem to be way out and only a speck in a spotting scope.

This duck that has been at the Cape Cod Canal has been hanging out with Common Eiders right in the Herring Run. I've seen some great pictures of the duck all week and I was envious. I obviously

couldn't look for it the last couple of days with my concert plans. Today, Sunday, we were supposed to get between 2-4 inches of snow. So I really didn't have any plans to go see it after work. At the last minute, the forecast changed. Although we might get a flurry the actual storm was going out to sea. Nantucket took the brunt of it.

After work today, I checked and the bird had been spotted in the morning. Then I got a note from someone as I was just about to leave the house that read "just so you know, the bird has been leaving the area around 2:30". By the time I got there, it was going to be 3:30. I decided to go anyway.

When we got there, the snow was coming in sideways. The wind was howling, although the temperature was around 38 degrees and the snow was melting on contact. We dressed for it, so the weather was of no concern. The issue would be if the bird was still there. The nice thing about ducks is they are easy to spot. They don't hide in bushes or in tall grass. They are big, so they are eider there or not (pun intended). Also, it doesn't get much easier than the Herring Run. The walk from the car to the outflow is a couple of minutes.

I am thrilled to say I say the King Eider. It was a lifebird for me. More important to me than just checking it off of a list, it is a bird I have wanted to see since I started birding years ago. Even with the wind and snow I stayed and watched it for 45 minutes. The King Eider was an adult male. It was beautiful.  Laurie was happy to see it for fifteen minutes and went back to the car. I found it difficult to pull myself away from it. So if you're asking yourself if I enjoyed watching a duck during a snowstorm more than going to a concert in Boston, the answer is yes. It was a terrific forty five minutes.