This is bird node.

On a brisk November day, a mysterious whale carries across the lead-gray surface of a northern bay.

The notes are drawn out, eerily musical, and can be heard from far away.

You're hearing the call of a male black scotor.

Black scoters are sea ducks that spend the winter on saltwater bays.

The unmistakable Drake is feathered jet black,

set off by a bright yellow knob atop its bill, a beacon on the dark water. The duck swimming

alongside him, dark brown with a vivid brown and white face, is a female. Black scoters are large

strong ducks, a foot and a half long, and buoyant

swimmers with a habit of cocking their tails upward. Black scoters return south from nesting

on freshwater tundra ponds. Each fall, they can be found on bays all across the northern hemisphere.

Through the colder months, these handsome, hardy ducks dive in search of mollusks, seaworms, and other prey.

Watch for them along the shoreline where sea ducks gather, scattered among groups of golden eyes and other scoters.

An unmistakable clue to their presence, that mysterious musical wail.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein.