I ran into Scott early this morning at Netarts Bay in poor light and after
viewing and photographing the bird in question, we came to the conclusion that
it's a female White-winged Scoter. It had only one whitish spot on the head
that looked somewhat like an eye ring in the low light, but was in fact in
front of the eye. The bill shape was Scoter shaped as well, but did appear
grayish, again the light was bad. It had dark plumage on the head and back and
appeared to float a lot higher than the other scoters in the area.
