#common scoter

[alonglistofbirds]

[2639/11080] Common scoter - Melanitta nigra

Order: Anseriformes Family: Anatidae (ducks, geese and swans) Subfamily: Anatinae (dabbling ducks)

Photo credit: Jon Lowes via Macaulay Library

[ifelten]

Sortand (Melanitta nigra), imm. han

Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra), imm. male

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[dansnaturepictures]

Some magical moments from our Scotland trip over the past week

We enjoyed fine views of colourful Oystercatcher and rustic Common Sandpiper shuffled along Lochindorb’s shore. Then we were mesmerised as a slick, otherworldly and stunning bird surfaced extraordinarily close to the shore, a summer plumage Black-throated Diver. It was an honour to watch this exquisite bird and its partner swim, stick their head under the water and dive. What an honour to see these sensational birds in their breeding grounds so intimately. Not long after a scene evocative of the moors captivated us, a pure and prepossessing Red Grouse on the roadside. In a daze of a few minutes it was wonderful to focus on and admire the bird, letting its gargling call wash over us.

One of the Black-throated Divers

Fresh from picking out Puffin and Common Scoters out to sea we were fixated on another fine diver at the shore of Spey Bay, the ruby throated gem that is the Red-throated Diver, alongside another further out still in winter plumage. It was electrifying to watch this excellent and eye-catching bird. Then all of a sudden where seabirds gathered further out breaking the surface were dorsal fins of Bottlenose Dolphins. Glee filled minutes followed as we saw the dolphins feed, getting exhilarating glimpses of more of their shiny bodies as they leapt out of the water surrounded by the white splash from their movements. We felt invigorated. Soon after the sky was filled with the colossal fish hunter overhead, more thrilling moments as a charming Osprey soared over.

One of the Bottlenose Dolphins

More rulers of the sky were enjoyed at Strathdearn, White-tailed Eagles against the mountainside with their rectangular wings and pointy diamond tales. With White-tailed Eagle and other raptors in the air again we spotted the icon of wilderness, a young Golden Eagle with its more crescent tail and succulent white infused in its plumage giving it an exotic feel. They circled in the bright blue sky above a line of pines; carefree, effortless as if all was well in the world. Scenes to see which inspire the soul, epitomize wilderness and bring awe and wonder.

The Golden Eagle

Oystercatcher

Common Sandpiper

The Red Grouse

Common Scoters flying over the sea

The Red-throated Diver

Osprey

White-tailed Eagle

[ornithological]

velvet scoter (melanitta fusca) with a female common scoter (melanitta nigra), ireland

[north-american-duck-poll]

i was cleaning up my draft of black scoter propa, researching for more facts and whatnot, when i saw a Fun Fact for Kids article for their close species in Europe, the common scoter. and this bit

:'< the photo is so cute too, with those upturned eyes...

I hope whoever wrote that article takes some time to reflect on their actions. Common Scoters are adorable!

[hankwag93]

Enjoying the bounty of sea ducks to be found in Maine right now! The first 3 images are common eiders and then the other images are of a large raft of both common eiders and black scoters. Taken 3/12/24 in Winterport, ME and Hancock, ME.

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

[ceruleanvulpine]

huge respect to @myxinidaes for reblogging that post with 100 birds

[icecreamwithjackdaniels]

Archibald Thorburn (Scottish, 1860–1935), "Common Scoter", 1913

[whatsthebird]

What's the Bird?

Location: New Brunswick

Date: Fall

We ask that discussion under questions be limited to how you came to your conclusion, not what your conclusion was.

Happy Birding!

Keep the game alive! Submit a bird HERE

Bird-168 graciously submitted by @sixhole

[birdusannus]

4/14: cape cod?!

we wound our way to the very tippy-top of cape cod , MA in search of seabirds-- and seabirds we found! we spent more than four hours and walked more than four miles total through sand and seawater to find a bunch of cool species, many of which were lifers for me!

Bird 67: a Belted Kingfisher was perched in a marshy area not quite at the seashore.

Bird 68: Surf Scoters were floating out on the water, mixed in with Black and White-winged Scoters!

Bird 69: We spotted a few Piping Plovers running up and down the shoreline-- they were so cute!

Bird 70: Razorbill; these fellas were far off shore and hard to find, but we saw them eventually.

Bird 71: Laughing Gulls were- well, laughing! I think their black heads are very striking.

Bird 72: Ring-billed Gull

Bird 73: Great Black-backed Gull

Bird 74: Glaucous Gull; we saw at least one for certain. I'm awful at identifying my gulls, but I learned that GLGUs are large, chunky, and have all-white wingtips.

Bird 75: Iceland Gull; still not sure how to ID these guys, to be honest...

Bird 76: Pacific Loon; we spent most of our time searching for this bird specifically. The water was full of COLO and RTLO, but seeing as MA is on the Atlantic, PALO are understandably rare. We sorted through winter plumage birds for hours, knowing PALO were present from other birders we came across. We finally ID'd a winter plumage bird based on its narrow beak (relative to a conveniently placed nearby Common) and chinstrap... it was such an exciting moment when we finally got it!

Bird 77: Northern Gannet; there were dozens, if not hundreds, of these guys close to shore. They were gorgeous, bright white with stark black wingtips. I could have watched them gracefully arc in the air before plunging into the water for hours!

Bird 78: Bufflehead; sitting on a lake near the seashore!

[anonsally]

Happy Birdday To Me!

For my birthday today, I took the day off work and spent over two hours birdwatching at a hotspot I had not been to before, though it's not that far away. Long report below!

(I hate driving on the freeway, particularly the one I would've had to take to get to Arrowhead Marsh. But I figured out that I could get there on public transit instead.)

Various rare bird sightings have occurred there in the past week, so I was hoping to see something new. In the end, I only saw one of the rarities, but I did see 7 birds I'd never seen before!

My dad joined me after about 45 minutes, but even before that, there were a number of Very Serious Birders with serious equipment. None of them had seen (today) the Nelson's sparrow or tufted duck that have been there the past few days (though according to the rare bird alerts, a few people had seen the sparrow in the morning), but they did help me with some IDs and point a few birds out and let me look through their spotting scopes!

Seven new species:

Common yellowthroat. This is probably the one I was most excited about, even though it isn't very unusual--but I had never seen it! and it's yellow!

Sora. Also very exciting with its pretty plumage and yellow beak! It was shy, but I got a good look at it a few times when it foraged at the edge of some reeds.

White-winged scoter. This was the only rare one that I saw, and it was pointed out by some of the Very Serious Birders, who let me look at it through their scope and regretted that they had not pointed it out to me while it was preening and showing its white wing patches. I could see a tiny white line on the wing, and the bill was very scoter-y, but it would look to a casual viewer like a pretty solid dark brown duck.

Blue-winged teals. Very beautiful bird. There were 3 of them--two males and a female--paddling around, and I could see a small light blue spot on the folded wing of one of the males. It's a large blue patch in flight, but not always visible when they're swimming.

Cinnamon teals. Another beautiful bird! We saw a pair.

Horned grebe. The horned and eared grebes are similar-looking and hard to distinguish, but in this case, I saw both (and was told both were there), so I managed to pick out the differences. (I had seen an eared grebe on the Elkhorn Slough boat tour, identified by someone else.)

Glaucous-winged gull. I would never have even tried to identify this one, but was told what it was.

I also "collected" a whole trifecta of teals, because someone also pointed out a green-winged teal (I'd seen one before). I was happy to see a pied-billed grebe (definitely the cutest of the grebes we get around here). On the walk from the bus stop I saw what I believe was a red-shouldered hawk perched on a utility pole. It had the orange barred front, but the back looked less black-and-white than brown-and-white. There were lots of scaups in the water, but I couldn't tell if they were greater or lesser; we also saw what was probably a greater yellowlegs, but of course could have been lesser. I saw some coots, common goldeneyes, black-necked stilts, snowy egrets, a great blue heron, loads of willets and marbled godwits, and a couple of black turnstones, but I'm sure there were lots of other ducks and shorebirds I didn't manage to identify.

All in all, it felt like a very successful birthday birding expedition, and it made me want to go back.

[queenlua]

TIL some heckin wild facts about river otters, apparently those dudes will fuckin devour the shit out of birds (!!!) given the opportunity:

source 1

A year ago I visited Point Reyes, California, over Thanksgiving and worried some sort of mass incident had occurred. There were so many dead pelican carcasses strewn about a very large area near the water in one location I was exploring. I took photos and videos, imagining getting in touch with authorities to stop whatever dreadful incident was occurring. Then someone who saw me photographing the carcasses said she heard a rumor it was the river otters grabbing the birds from below. It made sense, because the feathers were still there, but the flesh and organs were entirely gone. I did not witness the otters doing this, but the landscape looked like a bomb had gone off in the middle of a flock of pelicans.

source 2

The past several years at Big Twin Lake, Okanogan County (by Winthrop) there has been a mini-wildlife spectacle where, at dusk, hundreds of ducks fly into a small patch of open water kept open by a bubbler. Often one could see (and hear) 8-10 duck species in the aqueous mosh pit (mostly both species of goldeneyes, but also buffleheads, common and hooded mergansers, teal, mallards, scaup, wigeon, sometimes swans or geese), some arriving after dark. The ducks would depart by first light, presumably to avoid the ever present Bald Eagles. (BTW - the spectacle was discovered during a CBC). This year the massive numbers of ducks didn't show up. A few ducks would land at dusk and then quickly take off. Flocks of goldeneyes and mergansers would circle a few times and then fly elsewhere. We initially wondered if it was because it has been warmer and there was more open water around. We also noted at least one river otter regularly cruising around or lolling on a dock but didn't connect the dots. At the Twisp CBC potluck I mentioned this year's lack of ducks and also mentioned that the folks who came to see the ducks, got to see the otter as consolation. One of the many amazing naturalists who participate in the Twisp CBC mentioned that river otters can wreak havoc on waterfowl and showed me multiple photos of otters carrying scoters and other ducks. The next morning they watched a Hooded Merganser narrowly escape the otter. It's a cool example of the impact one or two predator individuals can have on the behavior of hundreds of individuals (likely the majority of the ducks overwintering in the upper Methow Valley).

[dansnaturepictures]

Looking back on an amazing week in Yorkshire a year ago this week. The photos I took a year ago in this set are of; meadow crane’s-bill at Flamborough North landing, Kittiwake at Bempton Cliffs, Gannet on a Flamborough Head/Bempton Cliffs RSPB boat trip, Gannets at Bempton Cliffs, views on the boat trip, Thornwick Bay, Fen Bog Nature Reserve, Flamborough Head and from the cottage we stayed at in the sun and Tree Sparrow at Bempton Cliffs. 

Puffin, Guillemot, Razorbill, Fulmar, the famous Black-browed Albatross, Whinchat, Common Scoter, Corn Bunting, Swallow, Barn Owl, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Harbour Porpoise, Grey Seal, heath bedstraw and chamomile were other highlights of the week; in which we enjoyed wonderful time at epic wild places seeing wildlife spectacles and species in unique and thrilling ways making many memories. It’s an interesting cycle at this time of June for me sort of riding the crest of the wave of our Anglesey holiday last week it’s important to remember holidays too for me (during the Yorkshire trip on here I was remembering the previous Anglesey holiday of 2021 as it was the same week), it’s interesting how much of the same feelings the three trips and other great wild adventures away from home in June gave me that great feeling of relaxation too and it doesn’t feel possible Yorkshire was a year ago already. 

[heatherwitch]

Double-crested Cormorant + Western Gull

Western Grebe + Bufflehead

Surf Scoter + Lesser Scaup

Common Goldeneyes

[boy-warbler]

White-winged scoters are one of the less common winter ducks I see each year so this was a good sighting for me. Colonel Samuel Smith Park yesterday

[north-american-duck-poll]

Last day to vote in round 1 polls!

There are now 24 hours remaining on the round 1 polls, which means this is your last chance to decide which of the round 1 ducks (and swans and geese) will be facing off against the heavy hitters coming in in round 2!

links to the polls are below:

Bracket A

White-cheeked Pintail vs Black Scoter

Tundra Swan vs Cackling Goose

Northern Shoveler vs Barrow's Goldeneye

Red-breasted Merganser vs Fulvous Whistling Duck

American Wigeon vs Greater White-fronted Goose

Mottled Duck vs Greater Scaup

Common Goldeneye vs Northern Pintail

Surf Scoter vs Trumpeter Swan

Bracket B

Canvasback vs Ring-necked Duck

Bufflehead vs Lesser Scaup

King Eider vs Spectacled Eider

Ruddy Duck vs Ross's Goose

White-winged Scoter vs Pink-footed Goose

Harlequin Duck vs Barnacle Goose

Gadwall vs Steller's Eider

Common Eider vs Brant