Persistence pays again

After four hours of my third, and final, attempt to photograph the Red-throated Loon at Lake Balmorhea, I decided to give up and head home. I made one final drive across the dam, and incredibly, got my photo!* I can't remember when I've worked that hard to get a photo, but I probably have. LOL

Not a great, close photo, but I'll take it! While looking for the loon, I discovered a Surf Scoter, also at the dam. I texted a couple people about the scoter, then decided I should post it to ebird in case someone wanted to come see it asap. (You know how birders are.) Posting on my phone was the only option. Without glasses, and with that small print, I have a very hard time posting on my phone. Plus I still hadn't seen the loon and didn't want to waste precious time on my phone. Eventually, I talked myself into it. I posted it as fast as I could. Too fast. When you post a rarity, you have to type it out in a window. Once you type part of the name, a drop down list of options pop up. I typed SURF and the options came up. I tapped "Surf Scoter," with my big fingers, and hurried back to looking for the loon. When I got home, I was horrified to have messages from people about the Surfbird I had discovered. OMG!

I had seen a scoter before at Balmorhea, and the Red-throated Loon I had seen on my previous visit, so they were no longer lifers. I just didn't have photos of them. Also got my first photo of a Greater-fronted Goose. Saw one years ago before I had a camera. So that was fun! (You know my motto: no photo, didn't happen!)

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* I can't positively identify difficult species until I download my photos, so I just take lots of photos. I took well over 300 photos today. At the time, all I saw was a loon, so took photos. There were at least five loons on the lake, so while I was photographing the Red-throated, I didn't know that's what it was. When I looked at the enlarged pics of it on my camera I was fairly certain I had finally gotten it.