They were probably emaciated and exhausted, perhaps due to rough weather
offshore which made it hard for them to feed. While we were having a
gorgeous stretch of weather on land this past week, it's been unusually rough
out on the ocean for this time of year.

Andrea Grad
Shoreline/Tokeland
agrad at helsell.com

________________________________

From: Rebecca Laszlo [mailto:Rebecca.Laszlo at microsoft.com]
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2009 2:51 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Cc: Rebecca Laszlo
Subject: [Tweeters] Why do Surf Scoters come onto the WA beach?



Wednesday I was walking between Second Beach and Kalaloch Beach up on the
Olympic peninsula, and there were scores of SURF SCOTERS up on the beach,
either alone or in groups of 2 or 3 birds. It was as if they were resting
about 10 feet up from the waves. They didn't seem to be preening their
feathers. They did have to hiss gulls away from them, as the gulls kept
harassing them. Most were unwilling to remain when I walked past them, and
would run/waddle/lunge back into the ocean as I tried to walk quietly by. In
a 2 mile stretch of beach I would guess there were at least 40 of these
birds. There seemed to be an even selection of males and females, and judging
by their plumage they were of varying ages.



I was under the impression scoters stay mostly offshore. I've never seen them
resting on the sand before. The Sibley's behavioral book didn't seem to
mention this behavior. Does anyone know why they were beaching themselves in
this season?



Rebecca Laszlo

Seattle WA

Rebecca.laszlo at microsoft.com