Date: 11/18/24 3:45 pm From: Lawrence Gardella via groups.io <lfgardella...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] Black Scoter status
One more note on Black Scoters. There have been groups of them offshore by
Bayfront most, if not all, this month. It seems to me that a higher
percentage of the Black Scoters I have been seeing this season as opposed
to past years are adult males. Has anyone else observed this?
Larry Gardella
Daphne
On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 7:35 AM Lucy & Bob Email via groups.io
<RobertADuncan...> wrote:
> Hi Greg and all,
>
> Very similar history. Has there been any study as to why? There's a
> Master's thesis waiting for someone to do!
>
> Bob
>
> On Thursday, November 7, 2024 at 07:08:20 AM CST, Greg D. Jackson <
> <g_d_jackson...> wrote:
>
>
> 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?
>
>
>
> Bob Duncan
>
> Gulf Breeze, FL
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Lucy and Bob Duncan
> Gulf Breeze, Florida
>
>
> --
> Lucy and Bob Duncan
> Gulf Breeze, Florida
>
>
>
