I'm having a short winter break in south west Scotland this week, based
at Powfoot near Annan, and this morning I drove up to Musselburgh near
Edinburgh for a look at the sea ducks. About a week ago the white-winged
scoter returned for it's third winter here and there are also three surf
scoters with the flocks of velvet scoter.
Whilst they're nowhere near as far out as the scoter on the Welsh coast, they are
still distant and a scope is essential. Even then it's not easy with the birds constantly diving, chasing each other around and disappearing in the swell and
any amount of wind shaking the tripod makes it virtually impossible. Despite the viewing difficulties and
the similarities with velvet scoter, the white-winged scoter still stands out
pretty well given a half decent view. It's not just the bill shape and colour
and the more prominent white tick behind the eye, the white-winged scoter has
a different jizz which is noticeable even at distance. It looks slightly larger, it's bull
necked and it has a head profile more like an eider due to it's long swollen
bill. It also sometimes swims in a different way with it's head held forward.
It's a cracking bird and I was pleased to be able to pick it out for myself
today and then get everybody else onto it.
I love birding in this area, quite apart from the scoter I must have seen 30
long-tailed ducks, mainly all drakes in spectacular plumage, as well as lots
if Eider, mergansers and red-throated divers, plus waders and a small flock of
twite.
Despite the poor quality of the photos the white-winged scoter clearly stands
out, having a pink bill as opposed to the yellow bill of the velvets. Also the
extent of colour in the bill is less than on the velvets, and even in the
photo above you can see the different head profile. Velvet scoter has a more
concave bill whereas the white-winged scoter has an eider like profile. In the
photo above it's obviously the righthand bird. Is it my imagination or does
the head colour of the American bird seem blacker than the velvets? This seems
to be consistent across all of my photos but it's probably not much use in the
field unless you it had close views in perfect weather, in which case the
other identification features would render the head colour irrelevant!
It's a pity that this photo isn't at least up to the same standard as the
others in this post because it shows the bill and head shape really well.
It's the second bird from the left with the pink bill. Compare it to the
velvet just to it's right which has a bright yellow bill.
Video of the white-winged scoter. It's the bird which starts off on the right
and then races over to the left chasing the other scoter.
Video of the two drake surf scoter.
Twite.
Fisherrow harbour.
Looking towards the Esk Mouth at Musselburgh.
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