Louisiana This species frequents coastal waters between early November and 

 early April (Lowery 1974). Bellrose (1976) estimated that about 60,000 Greater 

 Scaup winter here. Using his methods of estimation, perhaps not less than 

 11,400 were seen during the incomplete 1975 waterfowl survey of Louisiana 

 (Goldsberry et al. 1980). 



Texas Oberholser (1974) noted that this species is a winter-resident in 

 Texas, generally occurring between 18 October and 20 May. It is scarce to rare 

 on the Gulf coast and rare elsewhere. Bellrose (1976) estimated a wintering 

 population of about 600 birds during the late 1960 's. His methods of computa- 

 tion lead to an estimate of about a dozen Greater Scaup present during the 1975 

 winter survey (Goldsberry et al. 1980). Recent Christmas Counts (Map 21) sug- 

 gest that it is more common there. Historic records suggest that this species 

 was much more abundant earlier in the century. 



SYNOPSIS OF PRESENT DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE 



Breeding In North America, the Greater Scaup breeds from coastal and 

 Arctic Alaska east through the Yukon and the Northwest Territories to extreme 

 northern Manitoba and Ontario and western Quebec. Other populations regularly 

 breed on the coast of Ungava Bay and in Newfoundland (Palmer 1976b). Bellrose 

 (1976) suggested that about three-quarters of the Greater Scaup in North Amer- 

 ica breed in Alaska, principally in the Yukon Delta; he estimated that 550,000 

 breed there and suggested that another 200,000 breed in Canada. 



The Greater Scaup is also a common breeding bird in the Old World. There, 

 "the Scaup" is found nesting across the northern Palearctic from Iceland west 

 to northern Russia and Siberia and south to about 60°N, with occasional breed- 

 ing farther south in the Faeroes, Britain, and the south Baltic (B0U 1971). 

 Figures listed in Cramp et al. (1977) indicate breeding populations of about 

 20,000 in Iceland, 2,000 in Finland, and 230,000 in the western U.S.S.R. 



Winter The Greater Scaup winters in North America along the Pacific coast 

 from the Aleutian Islands south to California (rarely northern Baja California), 

 along the Atlantic coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Florida, and along the 

 Gulf coast south to the Mexican boundary (AOU 1957). January surveys by the 

 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service indicated that about 60% of the total wintering 

 population is in the Atlantic Flyway ; nearly half of these winter between Massa- 

 chusetts and New Jersey. South of Chesapeake Bay, Greater Scaup become much 

 less abundant, and are apparently least abundant off Georgia, and most abundant 

 off Florida. The status of this species on the Gulf coast is poorly known but 

 it is apparently abundant off Florida and Louisiana. 



A total of about 1,131,800 "scaup" were reported within the contiguous 

 United States on the 1975 waterfowl survey (Goldsberry et al. 1980). Bellrose' s 



293 



