Surfer Dudes

Surf Scoters aren’t common in Interior Alaska, but do turn up occasionally in spring migration. Sometimes in unexpected places. This handsome fellow was at 48 Mile Pond on Chena Hot Springs Road this past summer.

Surf Scoter Male

The colorful, knobby bill, the white eye and the white forehead patch make the species unmistakeable in the field. They winter in coastal waters; they’re pretty easy to find on Prince William Sound. This group was on Orca Inlet, near Cordova.

Surf Scoter Pairs, Prince William Sound

But neither in the flat waters of Prince Williams Sound nor the taiga lakes of Alaska can you understand how they got their name. For that, you need ocean, big waves and foam. Because this is a species that, except when breeding, lives in the surf, foraging among the big waves with an insouciant indifference to big rollers and undertows.

Scoters in Surf, Stinson Beach, Marin COunty

This is a diving duck, specializing in the white water surf zone, feeding on mollusks, especially bivalves. But the fun is watching them effortlessly deal with the waves, cresting the smaller ones and diving under the larger ones.

Cresting a Wave

They don’t ever seem to get tumbled, or even inconvenienced, by the waves. It’s a near-perfect adaptation to the environment.

Foam and Sea Ducks

Remember that if you do beach photography with big glass and a good camera, you need to wipe your camera and lens down with a damp (not wet) rag, rinsed in fresh water, promptly after you’re done. Salt is the enemy of optics and electronics. And a beach with breaking waves has salt spray. It doesn’t take much, less than you can easily detect, to turn your expensive gear into a corroded mess.