Black Scoter (drake) on Mystic Lakes 8:00 am.

[PAUL ROBERTS]

It was a relatively quiet, chilly morning on the Mystic Lakes, highlighted by a drake Black Scoter flying up and down both lakes several times. Its's possible there was more than one, but we had multiple sightings going from lower to upper and vice versa.

     The Great Egret and long present Spotted Sandpiper (juvenile) were not seen this morning. A juvenile male Cooper's hawk was seen harassing several Ring-billed Gulls, and both eagles made relatively brief appearances.

 

Best,

Paul

 

Paul M. Roberts
Medford, MA 
phaw...@comcast.net

[Nina Shepardson]

I was at the dam a little later in the morning. Didn't see the scoter, but one of the eagles did a low flyover. For a moment, I thought it was going to land on the roof of the Tufts boathouse! Sometime around 9:45, I also saw what looked like a young eagle circling high over the western shore of the upper lake. The head was mostly dark and the plumage was mottled, so I'm guessing one or two years old? If the resident eagles were still around, they didn't feel the need to see the youngster off. It flew off to the west.

Best wishes,

Nina Shepardson, Arlington