With the colder weather, flocks of Black Scoters turn up on our coast. They breed farther north, in Alaska, and the Yukon and, on the other side of the continent, near Hudson's Bay. In late fall, they head south. I saw a small flock, as usual, far enough off-shore to present as a line of black specks. The camera sees better.
Black scoters, Melanitta americana. |
Black scoter males are solid black, except for the bright yellow knob at the top of the bill. The bottom and tip of the beak is black. Females are brown with a pale face; their beaks are dark.
The "line of dark specks". |
These are diving ducks; diving as deep as 20 metres in search of shellfish.
They ... hunt for shellfish, which they wrench off the underwater rocks with their sturdy bills before swallowing them whole and grinding them up in their muscular gizzards. One wonders how much of the bluish sand along our coasts, made from pulverized mussel shells, has been processed by the alimentary canals of these ducks. (From Birds of Coastal British Columbia)
Much ado about something. |
Back to mushrooms, next.
- Negrones americanos, Melanitta americana. Los machos son completamente negros aparte de una protuberancia amarilla encima del pico negro. Las hembras son de color café, con una cara pálida; el pico es oscuro.
- La "linea de puntos negros".
- Levantándose al aire con gran alboroto.
Buscan crustaceos, los cuales arrancan de las piedras submarinas con sus picos fuertes antes de tragárselos enteros y luego molerlos dentro de sus mollejas musculares. Nos preguntamos cuanto de la arena con tintes azules de nuestras costas, constituida de conchas de mejillones pulverizados ha sido producido por los canales alimentarios de estos patos. (From Birds of Coastal British Columbia)