I got out to Riley's Lock about 5 pm and was able to spot the 5 Surf Scoters pretty quickly, altho further away than I would have liked---no chance to really see that interesting bill the pictures show; I could just tell that there was red on the bill of one of them.  But I'll take it--thanks, Dave, for the life bird!

One really interesting thing I noticed about the 2 males--whenever one of them turned its head, letting the white on the back of the head show, it gave the impression that a second bird had suddenly appeared!   A very odd optical illusion, which I think would only happen if they were a bit of a distance away.

Other nice birds were 10 Red breasted Mergansers, and a Common Egret, and some horned grebes including a nicely plumaged male.  

Patricia Wood
Silver Spring

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