clangula (noise) hyemalis (winter)
Monday, March 16, 1981 — 4:45 pm
Evanston, Illinois — Northwestern University — Lake Michigan
In the spring of 1980, I would drive to Lake Michigan after work to bird. I saw a lot of interesting birds, but the one I most wanted to see, the Oldsquaw, eluded me. I knew they were there, flying just out of binocular range. (I was still using the individual-eye-focus binoculars Dad gave me.) I could see birds out over the lake, but I just couldn’t make them out. Were they Oldsquaw? Scoters? Goldeneye? It got to be a crusade with me, and it got very frustrating.
I decided to buy a spotting scope. We had very little money, but I scrimped and saved and finally got the necessary $200. I took it to the lake for the first time on this Monday and … success.
The Oldsquaws were swimming and drifting in a loose raft well out in the lake. Without the scope, I couldn’t have identified them. They frequently disappeared behind the waves and reappeared on the crests. Occasionally, one would dive under the surface. A few minutes after I spotted them, most of the raft took a nap with heads tucked into their back feathers. One of the females rose up and flapped her wings, affording me a great view of her dark wings. When they drifted with their backs to the wind, their long tails curled up over their backs. It wasn’t as good a look as I could have wished, but I could tell they were beautiful. It justified the cost of the scope.
Notice downtown Chicago on the far right.