Ron Payne and I went on a Snowy Owl quest today traveling a number of 
roads in Cornwall, Whiting, Orwell, Shoreham, Bridport, and Weybridge.  
Did not find any.  We did note 21 Red-tailed Hawks, 6 Northern Harriers, 
1 Kestrel, and surprisingly no Rough-legged Hawks, even where they have 
regularly been seen in recent days.

We also surveyed Lake Champlain waters from Larrabees Point in Shoreham 
north to McCuen Slang/Champlain Bridge, making a number of stops to view 
the lake.  The Goose Bay scaup raft is back together again with 1780 
birds counted.  Neither of us was able to discern any Greater Scaup 
among the various groups of scaup we saw on the water or in flight.  
Lighting was excellent.

There is no persistent ice yet, although some shallow bays have had a 
thin ice cover in the early morning.  Last year at this time there was 
significant ice forming, with complete ice cover (except at the ferry 
crossing at the bridge site) by December 15th.

Below is a combined list of all lake birds seen.

Ian
============
Snow Goose     3
Canada Goose     619
Mallard     29
Ring-necked Duck     2
Lesser Scaup     2105
Common Goldeneye     167
Common Merganser     9
Red-throated Loon     1
Ring-billed Gull     132
Great Black-backed Gull     1