A tale of two Scoters and a Hooded Merganser

 

Hooded Merganser

A Stejneger’s Scoter, found at a place called Lower Largo in Scotland on the 28^th April, constituted yet another addition to the recent good run of UK firsts. Being a round trip of some 720 miles from home this would be a mega twitch for what would probably be distant and difficult views out at sea. As I was two thirds of the way there it would have made all the sense in the world to have gone when I twitched the Northumberland Grey-headed Lapwing, see here. It was, however, not to be as other commitments meant I had to return home that night. Within the same large flock of Velvet and Common Scoters were also 2 White-winged Scoters. With only 2 records to date, this is another bird missing from my UK list, I’ve dipped one before at Musselburgh also in Scotland, and further incentive to get off my backside and in the car. What put me off was 12 hours of motorway driving and the negative thought of a possible dip of the century as I knew this was going to be birding at its most difficult.

 

Subsequently my little demon regularly appeared on my shoulder whispering in my ear, “you should go”, ”it’s a UK first”, “you’ll probably never see another one”. More recently its egged me on even more by saying “look Nick’s been, (see here), surely you want to go too!” As an added incentive, the ice will soon be melting in the Velvet Scoter’s far north breeding grounds and the flock will depart to produce the next generation, presumably taking the rare Scoters with them.

 

As an additional  complication a choppy sea would make it nigh on impossible to pick out the Stejneger’s from the hundreds of other Scoters in the flock. So, with the weather looking favourable at the end of last week, with light winds and a still sea promised, I booked an overnight hotel and set sail for Scotland Thursday lunch time. The journey is almost all motorway from home so I did it in two hours stints with plenty of breaks to stretch my legs and wake up. My plan was to have an hour or so on site that evening before spending the whole of Friday, if necessary, trying to locate the rare Scoters. I arrived at around 18:00, parked in the recommended Temple car park and walked east along the coastal path to some old concrete pill boxes some 20 minutes away.

 

Lower Largo turned out to be a picturesque old fishing village situated on Largo Bay along the north side of the Firth of Forth. It is famous for being the birthplace of the privateer Robinson Crusoe in 1676. A signpost at the harbour points to Juan Fernandez  some 7,500 miles distant, where Crusoe lived for more than four years as a castaway. 

The statue of Robinson Crusoe in Lower Largo

 

There were five other birders scoping the sea at the pill boxes when I arrived but, rather worryingly, no reports of either rare Scoter since 08:30 that morning. The mixed Scoter flock of Common and Velvets was some 500-800m out and only just visible with the naked eye.  Until comparatively recently any Scoter with a white wing bar was called a Velvet Scoter but they are now split by most authorities into three distinct species, our Velvet Scoter, its North American counterpart, the White-winged Scoter, and its Asian counterpart , Stejneger’s Scoter. Separating the three largely relies on getting a good view of the head, in particular the bill colour and structure.

 

Male Velvet Scoters have a bright orange-yellow bill. The American White-winged Scoter has a pinkish-red bill with a dab of yellow just underneath a more prominent nostril. The adult male Stejneger’s  has a very knobbly bill base with the bulk being  pinky-red similar to its American counterpart, but with a diagnostic yellow lick running along the edge of the upper mandible. A large white tick behind the eye is much more prominent in the Asian and North American species than in the Velvet. Here are some cropped library pictures showing the differences. If this looks easy imagine trying to pick these features out some 800m distance in a mobile flock of several hundred birds. To make matters worse, they spend a long time asleep with their heads tucked in.

Stejneger’s Scoter

White-winged Scoter

 

As the light started to fade I decided to give up for the evening and along with several  others present made my way back to the car park. I was booked into the local Best Western which had been recommended by Nick, considerably more expensive than the Travelodge but much more amenable with a nice restaurant.  I ordered a glass of red wine and a steak and checked RBA. Incredibly the Stejneger’s had been seen 5 minutes after we left! Oh well at least it was still there.

 

After a fairly restless night and a heartly breakfast I was back on site for high tide at 08:00. Another birder told me he had seen the Stejneger’s but it was currently asleep with its head tucked in. I had a look through another birders scope and saw the bird they were talking about. With its head tucked in I had to take their word for it that it was the target bird. Back at my scope, and with no points of reference and hundreds of similar birds, I frustratingly tried to find the Stejneger’s. It was probably only 10 minutes before I locked onto it but it seemed like forever then there it was in all its glory with its head up showing all its diagnostic features. Given the distant and birds mobility, there was zero chance of getting the R5 onto it so I had an unsuccessful  go at phone scoping it. It was so mobile and so far out that it would drift off before I could get the phone camera onto it so I gave up on that idea and set about trying to locate the White-winged Scoter. While scanning the Scoter flock I saw two Long-tailed ducks, a number of Red-breasted Mergansers and 2 Surf Scoters but no White-winged Scoter. A birder next to me announced that he had found it and kindly let me see it through his scope. It was a bit closer than the Stejneger’s and again its diagnostics were easy to see. I spent the next hour or so looking at both birds by which time my eyes were getting tired, there is only so long you can look through a scope, so I made my way back to Lower Largo and found a nice café for a coffee.

What a morning looking at five of the possible six Scoter species recorded in the UK, only missing was the Black Scoter.

 

My plan now was to  commence the long drive home but break the journey near Kendal in the lake district where an American Hooded Merganser was reported on a small lake called Winfell Tarn. The approach roads to the tarn were typical one lane Lake district affairs with almost no passing places. Luckily, I didn’t meet anyone and I soon parked up near a footpath down to the recommended viewing spot. Several other birders who I had met at Lower Largo had had the same idea but there was no sign of the Merganser. I was about to give up when I found it distantly amongst some sedge. It soon swam out into clear view allowing some distant heat haze effected record shots.

 

The Hooded Merganser is a controversial bird in the UK with many kept in wild fowl collections meaning that many records are undoubtably escapees but there are, rather surprisingly perhaps, 13 accepted records. This bird is said to be unringed so it comes down to quite subjective criteria as to whether this bird will be accepted as wild or not. It’s done itself no favours in this regard by staying in the same spot for quite some time and I suspect it will not be accepted. I have seen them before in the UK but none have been accepted and it's not on my UK list. I will wait and see what the powers to be say about this bird.

 

Another boring 3 hour drive had me home at 21:00. I was absolutely exhausted and had the best nights sleep I’ve had for many a day – all that fresh sea air and excitement is obviously good for the soul!

 

Before I sign off, and because I know some bright spark is going to send me a message to this effect, I do know that Robinson Crusoe is a fictional character! Daniel Defoe based the character on Alexander Selkirk who was indeed born in Lower Lago in 1676. He spent four years and four months as a castaway  from 1704 to 1709 after being marooned   by his captain, initially at his request, on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Island. 

 

 

 

 Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!