I guess those White-winged = Velvet = Stejneger's Scoters I saw alongside my troop ship on New Years Day 1961 off the SW tip of Korea would be the latter named scoter species. It's too bad I never saw the European Velvet Scoter for a grand sllam.

Phil Hotlen
Bellingham, WA
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Ian Paulsen <birdbooker at zipcon.net>
> HI Joe et al.:
> Speaking of White-winged Scoters, this week I got in a copy of a British
> bird book titled: Frontiers in Birding. In the species identification
> accounts, there is a section on how to identify Stejneger's, White-winged,
> and Velvet Scoters. Although British and Russian ornithologists currently
> divide the scoters into two species ( Velvet (M. fusca) and White-winged
> Scoter (M. deglandi), the author argues that the eastern Russian form
> (Stejneger's Scoter (M. stejnegeri) should be treated as a valid species.
> Stejneger's Scoter has been recorded in Alaska and might occur here as a
> vagrant. So everyone needs to check those flocks of White-winged Scoters
> for Stejneger's Scoter!
>
> --
>
> Ian Paulsen
> Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
> " Which just goes to show that a
> passion for books is extremely unhealthy."
> from Cornelia Funke's "Inkheart".
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters