304 : Surf Scoter

Surf Scoter - Melanitta perspicillata

We have arrived as a family at Tofino on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. The vast Pacific lies on the doorstep of our glass-fronted beach house. The water is cold and clear and its a different ocean let alone a different continent to bird.

Jet-lag is still hanging around so I woke this morning at 5.50 am (its getting better) having stayed up until 10.30 pm. I almost don't want to go birding sometimes - its a faff getting equipment sorted - I don't know what anything looks like. I will miss all the shots. I wasn't very optimistic when I headed out shortly after 6 am, hungry, sore feet, tripod mounted with the bird canon.

The lichen and fern filled stands of conifers were filled with the little peeps of alien birds. Its a recipe for  neck ache and frustration. Thank god for the open water. Sea watching is something you do when you are not really birding. You scan the water in the hope of seeing a few black dots ! The Pacific was obliging.

This is what we call a "raft" of ducks. A good 1/2 kilometre away plus with a the lens on full 400 mm zoom. I knew they probably some form of sea duck - probably scoters but this type of view wasn't going to get an ID. I picked my way out along a rocky promontory, twisting ankles and clattering tripods and over balancing. I am not a mountain goat.

I started to get some better views and the views through my new 10 x 42 Avians clinched it or did it. Surf Scoters (these are my first) have a strange roman type nose (see the first shot) with a bright orange and white bill. The bird in the first shot is certainly a Surf Scoter. It has a multi-coloured bill with black running down the top edge. Also there is no white in the wing feathers - that could be a clincher for another tick if I post again later today. I do love a bit of book work on new birds.

So what are ducks doing out on the sea ? These birds breed on boreal lakes - plenty of those around in British Columbia. Typically though they Winter on the sea. I would guess that breeding is now complete and the birds have dispersed out onto the Pacific. There diet in the Winter consists of blue mussels and a walk along the beach yesterday evening turned up hundreds of smashed large mussel shells the size of a small hand. The birds dive down to the bottom - perhaps for 30 seconds or so and grab and smash the bivalves. I observed a few ducks swimming along with their head under the water before upending and diving down. They do tend to dive together. They rest for a couple of minutes then the whole raft will disappear and pop up like a bunch of corks.

I think is the first sea duck species on the Daily Bird. More to come.

Surf Scoter, Melanitta perspicillata
Pacific Sands Resort, Chesterman Beach, Nr Tofino, Vancouver Isaland, British Columbia, Canada
2 August 2014