Date: 12/19/25 11:12 am From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] New White-winged and Black Scoters
Late Friday morning, the scoter flock at the Imperial Beach Pier that has been hanging around feeding on the muscles on the pilings for the last few weeks contains a new, female White-winged Scoter and a drake Black Scoter. These are new birds for this area, as the Black Scoter present a little farther south off the end of Seacoast Drive is a female. Of course the question is, is there back and forth exchange between Black Scoters on the ocean here and those that fairly religiously are seen on South San Diego Bay proper, which is not very far away as the scoter flies. This female White winged has two distinct white patches on the side of the head with the forward patch near the base of the bill being especially large and a horizontal oval shape, quite different from the smaller vertical forward patch shown by female Surf Scoters. It's also slightly larger overall than the Surfs.
Paul Lehman, San Diego
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