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Above and below nine: This female Common Eider was exceptional in its confiding behavior, foraging along the near seawall at the Ocean City inlet (11/4/2007). Having frozen for hours in mid-winter to view distant eiders, I couldn't help but shake my head and smile as the local fisherman casually said "quack, quack" as it passed.
The rich reddish-brown upperparts of this bird allow identification as the Atlantic subspecies (S. m. dresseri), which is the expected subspecies in this area.