White-winged scoter, male (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

14 February 2026

With Lake Erie completely(*) frozen, water birds that would have spent all winter on the lake have come south to open water on the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers in Pittsburgh. This week a couple of white-winged scoters (Melanitta deglandi) that normally spend the winter on the Atlantic or Pacific coasts showed up at Emsworth Locks and Dam on the Ohio.

Emsworth Locks and Dam, Ohio River, southwestern PA (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

These ducks are rare here and look a bit unusual with flat lumpy beaks as you can see in the photos from Wikimedia: male at top, female below.

White-winged scoter, female (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Charity Kheshgi and I went to see them on Tuesday when it was sunny and 50°F(!). We hoped to see a red-necked grebe that had been there on Monday but no. However we saw many ducks, two ravens tumbling, and four bald eagles (checklist here).

Ed McKaveney photographed the male scoter and a bald eagle on the day before.

At the top I said Lake Erie is completely(*) frozen. Yes it is except … On 8 February northeast winds buffeted Lake Erie’s ice and in just four hours it cracked all the way across the lake as seen on satellite. The crack reaches 80 miles from Port Burwell, Ontario, Canada to Sandusky, Ohio. In some places it is 3km (1.86 miles) wide.

This crack will not be enough to bring water birds back to the lake. A lot more ice has to break up before the white-winged scoters go north.