Surf Scoter June 12, 2016

My friend Julie and I drove out to Chimney Rock for a little look-see.  She came in her new Tesla and demonstrated its “look ma, no hands” feature, which was slightly scarier than its other trick, “look ma, no feet”!  We arrived at our destination without incident.

I suggested we head for the Life Saving Station, where a month earlier I had seen large numbers of elephant seals close-up.  Though their ranks had diminished, there were certainly enough to enjoy, including an enormous male who was barking it up and doing a little shoreline seal-to-seal combat.  Added into the mix were a dozen unusual looking birds with large flat beaks, each with a central bright orange stripe flanked by white stripes.  When pressed by another visitor to name this avian, I whipped out my iBird West app, which is a remarkably wonderful thing (only to be rivaled by my Topo Map app).   After surfing through geese and coot, which was my closest guesses, I somehow found surf scoter.  Bingo!  I wonder if Julie was impressed.  For two not-so-young gals, we are surprisingly hip.