Date: 11/6/24 3:22 pm From: Douglas Hamm via groups.io <dhamm72...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Black Scoter status
I got a group of 10 at Lake Shelby last Friday. This is farand away the earliest I have seen them, although I have only lived here for threeyears. The earliest I had ever seen them before was Dec. 9. Also, my high countbefore this was five birds and most often it was only one or two. While this isfar from 658 birds, it did seem unusual to me based on the last three years.
Douglas HammGulf Shores
On Wednesday, November 6, 2024 at 05:02:32 PM CST, Lucy & Bob Email <robertaduncan...> wrote:
Hi all,
Yesterday Brian Cammarano counted 658 Black Scoters flying W out in the Gulf from Ft. Pickens. When F. M. Weston's booklet was published in 1965 there were only TWO records for the area since 1916. Of course there were not many birders around during that period and optics were not the best and it cost a valuable payment to cross the beach bridge, but there was a cadre of "bird watchers" extant by the 1960's, but we were still not finding scoters of any species in any numbers.
By the time our booklet "The Birds of Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa Counties" was published in 2000 the maximum recorded skyrocketed to 80 in 1987. By 2018 when our 2nd edition was published it had jumped to 223 in 2016.
So what's going on with this quantum leap in Black Scoter numbers in recent years? Are food resources scarce in recent years along the Atlantic coast where they usually winter so that they are forced to look for new wintering productive habitat? Their primary food in winter in salt water is mussels, followed by crustaceans. So since they are now wintering here and also to the W of us (Chandeleur Islands, Texas coast?) they must be finding sufficient food each year. Any thoughts?
Bob DuncanGulf Breeze, FL
