In case any CT birders think Cape Ann MA is too far away for an easy one-day trip.....or wondering where to go out birding this month....consider this... I was craving some more winter coastal birding and today drove 2hr10min (about 145miles) from my CT home up to Gloucester/Rockport, CapeAnn, MA. The wind was ESE and that probably helped a bit.... I set up my scope in the Elks parking lot overlooking the windy choppy ocean (at 97 Atlantic Road, Gloucester), and watched for more than two hours as the usual winter birds floated by (GoldenEyes, Buffleheads, Red-breasted Mergansers, etc), or flew by (10 Purple Sandpipers), in great backlit sunlight... including small numbers of all 3 Scotor species, plus the following... 1 BLACK GUILLEMOT, in its black/breeding plumage, in binocular distance, and no more than 100feet away from a white-winger scotor, for comparison! 1 KING EIDER, adult breeding male, along with a dozen Common Eiders. 36! RED-NECKED GREBES, not far from 3 Horned Grebe individuals, 4 Red-throated Loons and 5 Common Loons, for more nice comparisons. The RNGrebes were in two tight rafts, of 19 and 17 birds. Looking out from the Elks parking lot they were on the left side, while the both Eider species and the Guillemot were mostly right in front of the Elks building. As i was about to depart, a Bedford Audubon Society weekend field-trip group arrived and got the quick benefit of my "stakeouts" (the King Eider was far out, unlike the Guillemot). I hit six other top spots around Cape Ann, and had a Razorbill off the Eastern Point Coast Guard Station, a 3rd winter Iceland Gull off of Andrews Point, and about 50 Common Eiders in Gloucester Harbor. I tried Loblolly Cove (a very small cove) for the Barrows Goldeneye but it was not there. Jodrey State Fish Pier was beautiful, but i did not see any unusual species there. I could not find a Long-tailed Duck, or Harlequin, or Gannet, etc. I scrutinized a few fishing boats on the ocean but nothing around them other than the usual gulls. I put 310 miles on the car, in one tank of gasoline, and was back home for dinner by 8pm. Not bad for a CT-based one-day trip. If you want further details on locating any of these birds please email me. If you have not visited Cape Ann recently, you can see most of the key birding spots in Cape Ann on my map which is public at.... http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=210348105358781938213.00049da0dc73c30662b15&ll=42.636737,-70.643635&spn=0.116813,0.126343&z=13 Enjoy the weekend, winter is winding down Tom Robben Glastonbury, CT