Three Scoters and a Scaup

During fall and spring migrations waves of dark-colored ducks fly past Halibut Point that to the distant or casual eye may appear to be identical. Most likely they are scoters, three different types in which the males' distinctive markings help keep the species organized amongst themselves. For us observers the contrast of those blazes deepens the birds' essential blackness, their intrigue and their charm.

A mixed flock of all three species of scoters

Scoters commute between wet tundra breeding grounds in summer and open coastal waters for the winter. Most fly past us in the fall for an easier life further south on the Atlantic seaboard. During March and April their numbers will resurge, northbound.

Male and female Surf Scoters

Surf Scoters earn their name from an ability to dive through turbulent waters in search of food on the ocean floor. They pry shellfish from rocky crevices with strong outsized beaks.

Those beaks display a candy-corn motif. How and why such a pattern developed on nature's canvas stimulates conjecture on the origin of design. Evolutionists collide with Creationists. Strategic minds jostle with whimsy. The Surf Scoter peers back through dotted off-center eyes inadequate, from a painterly point of view, to anchor the vivid features to the rich black body, giving the effect of an abbreviated work of Surrealism. Yet the species thrives.

Black (formerly American) Scoters are the least adorned of their clan. The male's neon orange bill stirs affection in its female counterpart as well as in birdwatchers along the bleak winter shoreline.

Male and female Black Scoters

The Blacks are the most common scoters now on the rim of Halibut Point. They ply the breaking waves along with Eiders and Harlequin Ducks.

Female White-winged Scoter eating mussels

White-winged Scoters forage for mussels right against the ledges. Their wing bars may be obscured in swimming birds. Females in all three species have a duskier hue than the males, charcoal as compared to coal. 


White-winged Scoter pair in flight

In addition to being blacker than the female the White-winged Scoter drake sports an arabesque eye liner and an orange-red tip to its bill.

Migration medley

Last November as I followed this group of ducks with my camera it became apparent that the white in their plumage increased markedly from left to right. The White-winged Scoter pair had joined with something unfamiliar to me. It was my first sighting of Greater Scaup, which prefers fresh water or protected salt water bays such as Gloucester Harbor when ponds freeze.

Greater Scaup,
drake in the lead, female next, then sub-adult or eclipse drake
(as identified by Chris Leahy)

These Scaup must have been passers-by at Halibut Point. The novelty put a live spark in my day.

Greater Scaup drake

Lo and behold in February a solitary Greater Scaup drake swam along the shoreline within portrait range. I admit to deserting the scoters for the finery of its plumage, curves, and proportions. But mainly, I suppose, it was a seduction of newness. If my bailiwick had been a marshy realm replete with scaup and a scoter chanced by, no doubt the scoter's exotic blackness would have enthralled me on first appearance.