FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Scoter spectacle continues

[Phoebetria@xxxxxxx]

Buoyed up by Sue Heath's report of last week that "tens of thousands" of 
scoters were buzzing around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, by Steve 
Hairfield's 
attestation that the scoters "looked like swarms of gnats coming off the 
water," and most recently by Bill Williams's and Mitchell Byrd's independent 
estimates of ~75,000 scoters yesterday 4 February, I spent 2.5 hrs this morning 
sorting through the scoters in the Chesapeake Channel and Thimble Shoal 
Channel.  
 I used a clicker for Black Scoters (by 10s), which turned out to be so much 
work that I had to estimate Surf Scoters, slowly, by 100s by eye.   It was an 
overwhelming but very engaging chore.   The treat, as is often the case, is to 
hear the great chorus of calling from these lovely birds, as well as the 
high-pitched whirring of their wings when a ship comes through the channel and 
causes tens of thousands to take flight.   One wonders what the cause of this 
influx of scoters is and whether such a concentration of birds can find 
adequate 
prey resources to sustain itself.   

My results are below.   I'm not sure what kind of margin of error to claim; 
thousands of scoters were in flight at any given moment, and I realized after 
counting around Island 4 that I had nearly missed several thousand to the 
north!   Probably my numbers are 10% low, for various reasons, but I did feel 
it 
very important to get a slow count on these birds.   It's hard to say what 
percent of the western North Atlantic wintering population these flocks might 
represent, but my feeling is that the Virginia Capes have as large a number of 
scoters right now (of 2 species, at least) as I've ever personally seen.   
Mitchell Byrd, who has birded the area since the early 1940s, is of the same 
opinion.

Surf Scoter                         57,200
Black Scoter                    7,850
White-winged Scoter          34 (Byrd and Williams had 100 or more)
Long-tailed Duck               3
Greater Scaup                    4
Lesser Scaup                    154
Common Eider                    5
Harlequin Duck                    1
Red-breasted Merganser     66
Common Loon                     6 (north of Island 4, to Fisherman I.)

No American Black Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, Buffleheads, Redhead, or Canvasback 
were seen, but I did not spend much time looking for other species.   Gull 
numbers are the lowest I've ever seen at this time of year, just a few 100 
birds 
max.

A cell phone call from Steve Hairfield, who is at Smiths Beach (west of 
Eastvile), indicates that many thousands of scoters are off the beach there 
this 
morning.   

Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA


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