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Posted by Toe on 21:13:42 11/05/13
With NE winds at 25-30 kts, some of us pelagicfiles were itching to get out to the coast. I was considering going to VA Key after work until Larry called to say that the old Newport Pier was rebuilt and open and he was on his way there. I took my lunch break and met him out there. No sooner had I set up my scope than Larry calls out a flock of scoters flying south. I got on them with the scope then took a few distant shots in hopes of spotting something different. The flock seems to be almost all Black Scoter, with two Pintail near the front, and a smaller bird ahead of the entire pack that looked like a Lesser Scaup. There were about 50 Black Scoters in this flock. We saw an occasional Jaeger, Gannets, gulls and terns, until a flock of about 30 Jaegers came by. Due to distance, ID'ing these to species is almost impossible, but they were most likely Pomarine. I took a photo of these as well, but that didn't help. Everything seemed to be staying out near the color change between the green and blue water about 1/2 mile offshore.
Black Scoters are always a good sight, and so are any jaegers, so in honor I'm having my 500th brew: an Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout.
Cheers!
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