Rare Scoters - Lower Largo, Fife

With plans to perhaps go birdwatching down south for the White-Crowned Sparrow this weekend, things changed when reports of rare Scoters started turning up from Lower Largo in Fife, Scotland. Surprisingly, I'd been in Lower Largo only several weeks earlier while working up near Perth. We set off, with Austin driving and me and Carl as passengers, at around 4am, arriving at the village before 8. There were plenty of birders there, and this was a good thing as I would have really struggled to pick these birds out on my own!

Very quickly, I was watching a drake Surf Scoter through someone else's scope (thanks Ray!). These North American ducks are fairly regular visitors to the UK, and in my opinion are the most distinctive Scoter species. The views were amazing, my previous sighting of this species was much more distant. I also saw my first few Black-Throated Divers, some looking great in breeding plumage! The group we were standing with also picked out a drake White-Winged Scoter. This species is a much rarer American vagrant. I managed to get on the bird using Carl's scope but views weren't great, I knew I was watching the bird but couldn't really make out any features. 

We then decided to move to the other side of the beach, where another crowd of birders was watching. Here, we soon had good scope views of the drake Stejneger's Scoter. This species has only recently been split from the White-Winged Scoter, and occurs in arctic eastern Asia. Thankfully, I spent a while watching the features of this bird. The larger knob above the bill was obvious compared to nearby Velvet Scoters. The bill colour and unique shape of the white eye patch were also identifiable.

Probably the most impressive sighting was the sheer number of Velvet Scoters, there were literally hundreds in view and probably thousands in the wider bay! A small group moved closer to shore with the rising tide, providing my best views of this species.

This small group of Velvet Scoters comprised several males and a single female

There were also large numbers of Eider and Red-Breasted Merganser on the sea, with several Gannet too. On the shore, reasonable numbers of Oystercatcher, Turnstone, Curlew, Redshank and a single Dunlin were present. A showy Yellowhammer in a stream flowing into the sea also showed well.


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