Wednesday 9 March 2011

White winged scoter

Noticed that a white winged scoter has been claimed off southern Ireland today and in view of the thousands of scoters we get off the north Wales coast what chance of one turning up here? I believe the white winged was put down as a velvet scoter at first but has now been re-identified. The bird was described as having a whacking great upturned tear behind the eye, the base of the bill given the impression of being very bulbous and the bill more reddish orange than yellow orange. Seeing as we currently have 2 surf scoters and a possible black scoter seen by Alan may well be worth checking those velvets a bit more closely.

4 comments:

  1. I hear its been present well over a month as well. Definately worth that extra determination...!

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  2. "Closely" being the difficult bit! Anyone got a motorboat?

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  3. For initial stills see:
    http://www.irishbirding.com/birds/web/Display/sighting/31858/Red_Alert.html

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  4. Some more stills here too. http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?f=291560
    Great find by Josh Jones!

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