>Same question, different species. Two weeks ago I saw several male
>adult-plumaged Surf Scoters accompanying a large flock of female and what
>looked like 1st year plumaged birds (very light colored). It seemed
>pretty early for this year's fledglings to be showing up. Were the females
>and young back already or were the Scoters doing the same as the
>Bonapartes; just hanging out instead of doing the family thing?
>
>Herb Curl
>Seattle WA

First-year scoters hang around in NW waters during the summer, yes. They
become very worn, faded and scruffy until they molt into their new
alternate plumage in fall.

Adult males fly out to the sea from the breeding grounds to molt after
making sure their mates are fertilized and on a nest (same reason the
shorebirds leave quickly; scoters aren't well-adapted to lake life). But
they don't usually make it to Washington waters until July, in my
experience. Large numbers of White-winged and some Surf, males in
beautiful plumage, appear every year in Grays Harbor in July. If you watch
them with a scope long enough, you may see a male flap its stubby remexless
wings. Remex = one flight feather; remiges = flight feathers.

Adult females in molt migration should hit the coast considerably later.
They've got to *do* something with those fertilized eggs.

It may be that some of the "adult" birds are two-year-olds that didn't
attempt to breed.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416