Valentine's Day

  
  What better way to treat your wife than to take her out birding on Valentine's Day?  We had reports of a Common Eider being seen on several days at the Jetty Park near Port Canaveral.  While we did not need the bird for a year bird, we had never seen one here in Florida.  Indeed, they are quite a rarity and were being sought after as a state bird by many of the locals.  When we arrived at the park, we began our search by scanning the sides of the jetty where the duck had last been seen.  Alas, plenty of gulls and terns, hundreds of Brown pelicans, scores of egrets and herons, but nary an eider.  Walking out to the end of the fishing pier, we ran into several other birders who reported similar results for their efforts.  What we did find, however, were many Northern gannets plunging into the surf and into the quieter waters within the jetty.  The weather today was the calmest its been in over a week, and the gannets were taking advantage of the calmer and clearer waters.  One nearby gannet was lucky enough to nail an eel as we watched on.  After photographing the gannets doing their thing, we resumed our quest for the target bird.  We did find a Common loon which turned out to be the find of the day.  A number of birders reported that this was their "year loon" and if we couldn't get the eider, this was the next best thing.  To us folks from the northeast, however, we found the gannets much more intriguing.  Along with the Eurasian collared doves we spotted on our way out of the park, these birds made the trip all worth our efforts in spite of getting skunked by the eider.