from Cameron Parish. Extreme dates of occurrence are 8 November and 13 May 

 (Lowery 1974). Surf Scoters may occur in greater abundance in the Gulf off 

 Louisiana than the present record suggests. The largest concentrations seen 

 include 17 birds west of Holly Beach, 24 April 1971 (Imhof 1971); 20 seen on 

 the Sabine NWR Christmas Count in the winter of 1976-77; and 34 near Holly 

 Beach, 21 February 1977 (Hamilton 1977). 



Texas Oberholser (1974) listed this species as a rare and irregular win- 

 ter visitor to Texas. He reported that Surf Scoters had occurred at least 30 

 times in Texas and we know of about seven more recent records. Records are 

 chiefly from coastal areas but a few have also been reported inland. Surf 

 Scoters usually occur in Texas between mid-October and mid-May (Oberholser 

 1974). Maximum numbers reported along the Texas coast during the period 1 970- 

 1978 in American Birds were an estimated 24 seen off the Bolivar Peninsula, 

 22-23 April 1975 (Webster 1975b); 6 at a pond in Austin, 10 December 1974 

 (Webster 1975a); and 5 at Texas City Dike, 7 November 1973 (Webster 1974). 



SYNOPSIS OF PRESENT DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE 



Breeding The Surf Scoter breeds only in North America from western Alaska 

 east through the Yukon and Northwest Territories, south to James Bay, and in 

 the interior of Quebec and Labrador. Bellrose (1976) estimated a breeding pop- 

 ulation of 257,000 Surf Scoters, but he gave reasons why he believed that this 

 estimate was too low. 



Winter Most wintering Surf Scoters are found along the Pacific coast from 

 the eastern Aleutians to Baja California, and in the Atlantic from the Bay of 

 Fundy to South Carolina (Bellrose 1976, Map 26). In the Atlantic, these scoters 

 winter most abundantly between Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, and Norfolk, Virginia 

 (Bellrose 1976). Surf Scoters are much less common off the Atlantic coast south 

 of South Carolina and off the Gulf coast (Map 26). A few regularly winter on 

 the Great Lakes. Bellrose (1976) estimated a winter population of about 765,000 

 birds in Alaska. However, Johnsgard (1978) warned that these estimates are 

 highly uncertain, in that observers made little effort to distinguish scoters 

 to species during winter surveys. 



Migration Migratory pathways used by the Surf Scoter are too poorly known 

 to warrant much speculation about them. Bellrose (1976) suggested that Surf 

 Scoters wintering in the Pacific fly overland to the coast and that those win- 

 tering in the Atlantic move east-southeast to James Bay and then to the north- 

 eastern Atlantic coast. 



HABITAT 



Nesting The breeding habits of the Surf Scoter are not well known; accord- 

 ing to Bellrose (1976), this scoter is the least studied duck in North America. 

 Breeding habits probably resemble those of other scoters. Palmer (1976b) ex- 

 amined the sketchy data available and concluded that these scoters nested in 

 brushy or forested habitats some distance from "quiet and slow-moving waters of 

 the forest zone and semibarrens" . He also stated that Surf Scoters nesting in 



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