Date: 12/17/25 6:16 pm From: Grigory Heaton via groups.io <g.heaton...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] Black Scoter, Tijuana River Mouth / Seacoast Drive
Hi all - I had a female Black Scoter with a flock of surf scoters and lesser scaup offshore about ¼ mi south of Seacoast Drive. Relatively close to shore and not too difficult to view. Perhaps one of the birds seen in the bay last month?
On a vaguely related note, a male Harlequin duck was seen at the Rosarito pier recently just 15 miles south of the border, with these and very sporadic sightings over the last few years being potentially the same bird. Although I suspect that the coast between Tijuana and Rosarito must just be better for this species than San Diego (with multiple different sightings there in the last twenty years vs. 0 (?) in San Diego despite the latter getting probably >100x more birder coverage), I feel like it isn't impossible for that bird to show up with the Border Field/Tijuana river scoter flock or at the IB pier (especially since the maybe-one-individual in Rosarito is usually seen with scoters at the pier there). All of this is to say it's worth keeping an eye out around IB even more than usual!
Grigory Heaton
Pasadena, CA
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