Scoters

Around 21:30 last night both Michael Pocock and I were outside in our respective gardens unbeknown to each other and both heard calls from migrating birds overhead.

When I came back in I checked on the calls and came to the conclusion they were Common Scoter. Michael also arrived at the same conclusion and emailed me today regarding the calls.

Common Scoter are a sea duck that breed in Arctic Russia and Scandinavia and winter south to the English Channel, North Sea, Irish and Iberian coast. In spring they migrate back to the Arctic usually thru the North Sea and are increasingly heard and recorded migrating overland by birders listening for Nocturnal Migration (NocMig) and the odd individual or small flock will turn up on inland waters such as Farmoor reservoir in Oxfordshire.

We are both quite confident on our ID of the species and it is the first record of Common Scoter in Cholsey.

Interestingly on the night of 8th March a flock of Scoter were recorded flying over Headington, Oxford using a NocMig recording device.

Might have to get one of those devices myself! Beats sitting out in the garden on cold nights listening.

Back to today, both Alan and I along the Bunk line, morning and afternoon with little to show for it.

Little Owl, 2 Herring Gull, a single Lesser Blackback Gull and several Black-headed Gull, 25+ Fieldfare and 250+ Starling.

My only photo of Common Scoter taken off Portland, Dorset

What they actually look like (courtesy the Crossley ID Guide)

Back to earth with some local Starlings