ML148188911

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

Four Surf Scoters, two females and two immature males, photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 26 March 2019 on waters of the Salton Sea just off the mouth of the Whitewater River, north end Salton Sea, Riverside County, California.

Observation details

Four scoters seen together on the water just off the river mouth represented two females and two apparent immature males, all Surf Scoters. All four birds were stocky ducks with broadly wedge-shaped bills that tapered from a deep base to a blunt tip, little in the way of a forehead, a smoothly rounded crown on a head that was large relative to the body, a short and inconspicuous neck, and a plump body that sat high on the water. I cannot now remember noting anything about the wings, and I have no more than a vague recollection that the tail was short and cocked upward. I did not see the bellies, spread wings, legs, or feet on any of these birds. The two males had the plumage almost entirely black. On both birds we noted a square-shaped spot of white on the nape, but neither bird had white on the crown, suggesting to me that both were young males. Also apparent was that the eyes were white and that the bill was colorful, including white, yellow, and maybe orange with a black spot, but I did not carefully study the overall pattern. Both females were instead a sooty-brown in overall coloration, but with a black cap that was sharply demarcated from the brown of the face and neck, and even more so with two otherwise diffuse spots of whitish on the face, with one before the eye and the other behind. Both of the females also seemed to have dark eyes and generally rather dark bills, but I cannot now remember if they were slate-gray or black.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

500

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

1/400 sec

Dimensions

2770 pixels x 1819 pixels

Original file size

7.63 MB