Seabirds-- SoCal (1 Viewer)

[rwblackbird57]

Hey all,

Went on a whale watch this morning in north San Diego county and had a couple species I was unsure of. The first is a pair of alcids, possibly Scripp's Murrelets? The other is a group of ducks flying about 1/2 a mile offshore. My apologies on the picture quality for both.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

The ducks are white-winged scoters.

 

[rwblackbird57]

The ducks are white-winged scoters.

I wasn't really getting a scoter feel, plus we only get about 5 or so records of White-winged Scoter annually in San Diego. They kind of looked like Cinnamon Teal to me, but that could be way off.

 

[FaroeRagnar]

I wasn't really getting a scoter feel, plus we only get about 5 or so records of White-winged Scoter annually in San Diego. They kind of looked like Cinnamon Teal to me, but that could be way off.

Those are either Cinnamon Teals or Blue-winged Teal.

The other birds looks like alcids

 

[GreenJay94]

I agree with Cinnamon Teal for the ducks.

 

[nikothomsen]

+1 for cinnamon teals, pretty sure blue winged would've shown white patches around beaks even in a photo of this condition.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Sorry. looking more closely I agree with cinnamon teal. Didn't realize the scoters were so uncommon in SDCo.

 

[Po'ouli]

The first two look good for Scripps's Murrelet (all dark above, white underwing, pair flying away). They started arriving a week or so ago.

 

[TLeukering]

Yes, Cinnamon Teal on the ducks. White-winged Scoters have white secondaries, not white leading edge.