Forty-three years ago I saw my first ever North American surf scoter off
Llanfairfechan on the North Wales coast. It was in a flock of about 5000
common scoter and it was a dot, the flock was probably about 1 mile offshore.
Since then I've seen maybe 20 other surf scoter off this coast but the views
have not improved greatly, they're always a long way out, usually disappearing
in the swell as I try to steady my telescope in the buffeting wind. I've
always dreamt of seeing one close in. Today it happened.
I arrived at the promenade at Colwyn Bay to find a fellow birder gesturing to
me that I should hurry up and get over to him. I lifted my binoculars and the
first bird I saw was a drake surf scoter about 100m offshore, the closest
bird. I could hardly believe my eyes, I watched it for about 20 minutes until finally it flew a little further out but was still a decent view by surf scoter standards.
A little later I was again scanning through the scoter flock and relocated the surf scoter with a second male, but much more distant.
The photos in this post are video grabs and certainly don't do the bird
justice. If you watch the video further down you'll see what an amazing bird
it is. Wow!
I never thought I'd see the white eye ring of a surf scoter. This is a sighting
of my dreams!
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