I also saw this group diving behavior of surf scoters off of Langely,
Whidbey
Island yesterday. It is worth noting that other, non-scoters,
participate (and
even initiate) the group dives.

The flock I watched was 40 surf scoters, 3 red-necked grebes, and 2
horned
grebes. They were calm between dives, but every last one of them would
be
underwater when a new dive was initiated. On at least two of
approximately
ten dives, the first bird under was a red-necked grebe.

Michael Patrick
(206) 743-8204
mpatrick at eldec.com

>----------
>From: ub359 at freenet.victoria.bc.ca[SMTP:ub359 at freenet.victoria.bc.ca]
>Sent: Saturday, February 01, 1997 2:12 PM
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Subject: Common Eider/Scoter Behaviour
>
>
>
>I spent Friday morning, Jan 31, working the area from Pt Gray to
>Spanish Banks and beyond, the south shore of Burrard Inlet, in
>Vancouver BC, looking for the Common Eider. I found it, but in
>doing so, observed some fantastic scoter behaviour.
>
>Standard scoter behaviour, when in large groups, involves then
>floating around together for a while, then a group dive, in
>which a fairly constant number of scoters dive, until all are
>down.

snip, snip, snip

>Brent
>
>--
>Brent Beach, Victoria, BC, CA
>