King Eider....what up!

Hey Birders,

Alvan Buckley and I decided to bird a different area than normal today, travelling the Lake Huron shoreline from Kettle Point north to roughly Goderich and back to Waterloo. Our best bird by far was an immaculate adult male King Eider we found at the mouth of the Maitland River in Goderich, on the north side of the harbour. Quite a surprise. Alvan got some pretty decent shots of it, which he'll be posting on his blog (http://www.alvanbuckley.blogspot.ca/) later.

We watched the bird from about 1-2pm. The bird was easily seen the entire time we watched it, never being more than 200-300m offshore.

Other birds of note include:
Black-crowned Night-Heron -1 juv. in the harbour at Goderich, seemed very out of place, standing with the gulls out on the ice!
Hoary Redpoll -1 bird in a large flock of Common Redpoll's, just south Goderich by the 'youth centre' on Hwy. 21

We saw a number of other good birds, including 4 Glaucous Gulls, Tufted Titmouse etc.

Directions to Goderich Harbour (for the Eider): take Hwy 8 west from Stratford. Once in Goderich, take Hwy. 21 north out of town. Just after the river/bridge, turn left on Champlain Boulevard. Follow the signs for the marina. There is a gate to the entrance of the marina. Park your car, walk down the hill towards the lake (~400m), the bird was on the north side of the mouth of river, where it empties into the lake.