Well that was a dud

Condo birding - watching that big low spin off the east coast... Terrible!

I watched for 3-ish hours on Wednesday before I was too bored to continue:

aaa_Condo, Hamilton, CA-ON
Oct 22, 2014
Protocol: Incidental
20 species

Canada Goose 50
Wood Duck 2
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 20
Northern Pintail 5
Greater Scaup X
Surf Scoter X
White-winged Scoter X
Black Scoter X
Common Goldeneye 1
Common Merganser 1
Red-throated Loon 8
Common Loon 35
Horned Grebe 5
Red-necked Grebe 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Bonaparte's Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull X
Pine Siskin 25

I decided to give it another go on Thursday, but only managed an hour before boredom struck again and I gave up:

aaa_Condo, Hamilton, CA-ON
Oct 23, 2014
Protocol: Incidental
8 species

Gadwall 1
Mallard 5
Common Loon 8
Red-necked Grebe 1
Northern Flicker 2
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Pine Siskin 9

The main highlight came with the falcons - through my binoculars I could see a Herring Gull and another bird swooping down towards the water, as if attacking something. I looked in my scope, and saw the Peregrine going full bore after the Merlin - looking like it had every intention of trying to catch it and eat it... The chase broke off when the Merlin was able to get some height on the Peregrine, and looked to be running for its life back to shore...

Not really sure what exactly unfolded there (was it the Peregrine and the HERG attacking the Merlin on the water? Or was the Merlin trying to catch something on the water, and the Peregrine then went for the Merlin???) but it was pretty cool to see. Just wish I saw it all!

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Too bad the weather was pretty darn dull here in the HSA - but there is always the sun to be excited about. There has been an exceptionally large sunspot in view the past several days.... Hasn't really done anything all that crazy, but it looks cool!

Thanks, Solarham!