The season

Our house seems like a ship at sea buffeted by the wind. It never stops blowing here on the prairie. Today felt like the beginning of winter -- near-zero wind chill, snow on the ground, grey, oppressive sky.

And it's deer season. The LeRoy schools were closed on opening day a couple weeks ago. Men dressed in hunter orange drive pickup trucks through town.

Plans

Hadn't planned on hunting today. I was going to spend a quiet day snug in the house with my family. But a friend phoned about noon excited about what he had seen in the field.

I quickly dressed in layers of warm clothing and gathered my gear. Drove the LeRoy blacktop out past the cornfields. Heard the booming of shotguns as I neared the recreation area.

The search

My friend said look near the dam by the stand of pines. I scanned with binoculars and scope for thirty minutes as the wind bullied my 6'2", 225 pound frame. It was hard to hold the binoculars steady.

Then down the barrel of my scope I saw it.

A scoter

Twenty five yards out floated a small dark duck barely visible against the water. Dark crown, one whitish patch by the bill, a second patch by the ear.

A scoter. A scoter come down from the tundra to winter in open water. A female scoter. Definitely a good bird here in Central Illinois as they usually winter along the Atlantic or Pacific coast. But a white-winged scoter or a surf scoter? Which species?

I studied the shape and position of the patches, the size, proportion and shape of the bill. Definitely a surf scoter -- a new bird for me. I had never seen one before. Life bird 311.

My friend came driving along the dam, stopped, asked if I was looking at it. We watched in silence. The scoter flew. No white patches on the underwing. Definitely a surf scoter.

Longspurs

He asked if I had seen the Lapland longspurs come down from the tundra to winter in the corn stubble. Thousands, many along the sides of the road. I had never seen a longspur.

I drove the LeRoy blacktop to School Road out to a quiet county road that cut through vast cornfields. Thousands of birds scuttled among the stubble, flew and darted and settled back down. I waited until they neared the road.

Yes. Sparrow sized, all buff and chestnut and brown. An ornate plumage of streaks, patches, whiskers. Lapland longspurs, thousands, life bird 312.

It has been seven or eight years since I last saw two new birds on the same day.