Posted by Robin Diaz on December 13, 2002 at 15:27:45:
In Reply to: Message for Robin posted by Billi Wagner on December 13, 2002 at 11:00:52:
Billi's description fits scoters perfectly. They seem to make it down here very infrequently, usually after >4 days of strong NE winds. They are seen regularly from Red Reef Park in Boca Raton, so I imagine Ft. Pierce gets quite a few.
The two ducks I saw were larger than scoters, had lots of white on the underbody/upperbody, white secondaries, dark head/neck. I have been seeing a few Lesser Scaup on the west side of bay near Vizcaya and Michelle Davis has seen them while sailing out of Coconut Grove. This is probably what I saw.
There is a great booklet published by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called Ducks at a Distance. It includes flock pattern, silhouettes, color areas and 2 pages of comparative waterfowl sizes.