May (Sprunt and Chamberlain 1949). They occur almost exclusively offshore, but 

 Burton (1970) mentioned two inland records and Weeks (1975) reported a single 

 female in Barnwell County, November 1967 to February 1968. Another was seen in- 

 land at Lake Greenwood, 15 January 1978 (LeGrand 1978). 



Georgia Burleigh (1958) knew of only one sight record for Georgia. The 

 first specimen for the state was taken on Tybee Island, near Savannah, 7 May 

 1959 by Tomkins (1959), who commented that the species may be more regular off- 

 shore than is generally realized. Observations in succeeding years sustained 

 this suggestion and the species is now regarded as an uncommon winter resident 

 on the coast, more abundant offshore, and rare inland (Denton et al. 1977). 



Florida Sprunt (1954) listed five records of White-winged Scoter in the 

 state. Although observations of this species, as well as of the other scoters, 

 are more frequent now, it is still considered rare to uncommon on both coasts 

 but regular in the upper Gulf (Kale 1979 ms a, 1979 ms b) . 



Alabama Imhof (1976b) regarded this scoter as a rare winter visitant to 

 the Tennessee Valley and the Gulf coast, and rare to casual on migration else- 

 where. The first specimen was a female taken inland at Wheeler NWR, Limestone 

 County (Atkeson 1961). Most sightings are between October and April, with one 

 each in June (Jackson and Cooley 1978b) and in August (Imhof 1976b). Along the 

 Gulf coast, It has been reported from Gulf State Park, Gulf Shores, and Fort 

 Morgan. The maximum number seen at one time (15) was at Fort Morgan, 29 Nov- 

 ember 1957 (Imhof 1976b). 



Mississippi Gandy and Turcotte (1970) listed a single specimen of White- 

 winged Scoter collected 6 December 1960 at Desoto Lake, Coahoma County. There 

 are more recent records for several coastal localities (Weber and Jackson 1977, 

 Jackson and Cooley 1978a), suggesting that the species may winter regularly in 

 small numbers on the Gulf coast. Maximum numbers reported in recent years 

 (12-13 birds) were seen in Mississippi Sound and off East Ship and Horn islands 

 (Hamilton 1977, 1978; Imhof 1978). 



Louisiana Lowery (1974) indicated that the status of all the scoters in 

 Louisiana was very poorly known, largely due to a lack of adequate observations. 

 He knew of only 27 birds reported on 21 dates from October to May, two-thirds 

 of them from November through January. Only one of these records was made well 

 inland. 



Texas Oberholser (1974) considered this species to be rare and irregular 

 in winter, occurring chiefly on the upper and central coasts (Chambers, Galves- 

 ton, and Aransas counties). In Texas waters they prefer offshore shoals, big 

 bays, and sounds (Oberholser 1974). 



SYNOPSIS OF PRESENT DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE 



Breeding In North America, the White-winged Scoter breeds from the upper 

 Yukon River of Alaska and the Mackenzie River Delta south to central British 

 Columbia, southeastern Alberta, southern Manitoba, northeastern Washington, and 

 northern North Dakota. Old World populations breed across the northern Pale- 



379 



