Hello Birders,

I decided to head south this afternoon and make a few stops along Lake 
Champlain. I stopped at Button Bay first, thinking that it may be protected 
from the very strong south wind, that was whipping today. There was a flock 
of 93 Goldeneyes there and a few Common Mergs. I then headed to Potash 
Bay, arriving at 12:45pm. DUCKS were everywhere!!!! The very close 
Goldeneyes spotted me as I was pulling in and immediately took off, but 
touched back down out in the bay, next to a large raft of Scaup. The sky 
began to darken and I knew that I had a limited amount of time before the 
snow flurries would commence. I concentrated on the raft of birds. There 
were Lesser and Greater Scaup, many of each (identifiable when they would 
fly into the wind for new positioning in the front of the raft). I estimated 
about 1000 Scaup and 300 Goldeneyes. Common Mergs were with them in 
small numbers and at one point I saw two Black Ducks in the flock, as well. 
The Goldeneyes began leaving the raft heading toward Oven Bay. It started to 
flurry but I was not deterred. I kept panning the group when I noticed five 
Goldeneyes just south of the raft. I thought I saw a Barrow's Goldeneye with 
them, and as it turned out, I did, I did see a Barrow's Goldeneye with them. I 
first noticed the darker back and white spots (this sort of looks to me like a 
black ladder with white spots  between the rungs). The visability was getting 
bad, but I did have just enough time to zoom in and see the telltale cresent at 
the base of his bill. 

Later in the afternoon, I bumped into Bruce MacPherson at the Burlington 
Intervale. We observed a Falcon (possibly a Peregrine, it was too far to 
determine) scaring up an entire flock of Starlings, hunting for dinner but did 
not have success with that attempt. It landed on the lower of the two large 
stacks, stayed there for about a minute, then flew off.

Enjoy Birds,

Jim