Date: 11/7/24 5:08 am From: Greg D. Jackson via groups.io <g_d_jackson...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Black Scoter status
Hi Bob and all,
That’s an amazing flight, far exceeding anything reported so far in Alabama. The maximum for the Alabama coast is 175 in late October 2022, with the second highest count of 135 in mid-December of that year. There is a tendency for the late fall-early winter period of certain years to have large flights noted on the outer coast.
Earliest Black Scoters on record in Alabama are 25 Oct (both at the coast and the Tenn. Valley).
Prior to 1970 there were only five coastal AL reports, 17 by 1980, 37 by 1990, and 52 by 2000. Highest count prior to 2000 was 77 (1994). Since 2000, and particularly since 2012, there has been a significant increase in coastal reports and numbers of individuals, with the highest counts occurring since 2015.
Inland the species is rare with most reports from the Tenn. Valley as would be expected. We have just under 50 inland records, though these are not as clearly weighted toward the last decade.
Greg
Greg D. Jackson
AOS Bird Records Compiler
From: <ALbirds...> <ALbirds...> On Behalf Of Lucy & Bob Email
Sent: Wednesday, November 6, 2024 5:01 PM
To: Nflbirds <nflbirds...>; Albirds <albirds...>
Subject: [ALbirds] Black Scoter status
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?
