Rare Birds at Sooner Lake--Oklahoma Power and Electric Property

                                                                    Wilson's Snipe

                                                       Female White-winged Scoter

43-48 degrees F/partly cloudy/18 mph winds

Today, my Audubon friend, Susan, and I made an excursion to Oklahoma Power's property on
Sooner Lake.  We expected to see a few things, but we were lucky enough to see these two
rarities.  The last time that Wilson's Snipe was reported on the property was three years ago.

This female White-winged Scoter was in the company of several Lesser Scaup, all deep water divers.
This bird was reported to be last seen on Sooner Lake in 2010, so we were long overdue.  Susan
suspected that this bird was a scoter before I did, so we managed to locate two important birds
on my first trip to the power plant.

We also saw a number of hawks, most notably the Harlan's, a very dark subspecies of Red-tailed
Hawk.  There were also numerous sparrow species and several American Kestrels.

It was an excellent four hours around the lake and we even took a short excursion to Teal Ridge
Wetlands, where we saw more hawks and the Song and White-throated Sparrows.

I have a few notable photos from Boomer Lake that I took last week, so let's see what else I can
find there over the next couple of days.  Wish me luck!