Black Scoter at Holkham

Black Scoter isn't a particularly rare vagrant but it's a difficult one to catch up with. The first British record was 1987 in Lothian and there have been dozens since but until 2014 all had been around the Scottish and Welsh coasts save an exhausted bird picked up in Lancashire in 2007. 2014 Saw one found off the coast of Cleveland at Redcar before 2015 saw one found in Northumberland which proved popular returning each year until it's last accepted appearance in August 2022 although sightings continued through 2023.

So my reluctance to travel too far to scan the seas for this bird has held me back until this year when one was found off the coast of Norfolk at Holkham. I travelled up on 29th January but failed to find the bird so with a free day today I arranged to pick Jim up and head up for a second go.

We arrived at Holkham for 8am and put £6.50 in the car park machine in return for four hours of leaving my car in the road before walking out towards the gap. The marsh was flooded so we made the decision to stay on the west side of the flood. To get around the flooded channels was quite a walk but we soon had our scopes set up on the beach and starting scanning what looked like three main rafts of Scoter.

A couple of Common Scoters got some interest showing good yellow on the bill but were quickly dismissed. We were joined by three other birders and a group of around fifteen sat in the dunes to the east of the gap. Mergansers and Grebes fed in front of the Scoter flocks and we noted Tufted duck, Scaup, Teal, Wigeon and Pochard on the sea before a surprise flock of c50 Eider flew east over the Scoters. A few Velvet Scoters were picked out but we struggled with the target until the sun came out and luckily so did the Black Scoter with its yellow/orange bill shining in the bright light and even visible in flight. The bird appeared a little bulkier in flight than the commons.  I managed to get the other guys onto it and we all left happy with the three hours we'd invested into finding it today.

Jim still needed Shorelark for a year tick so we walked west for about a mile and Jim found them feeding on the sand to get the year tick before we left to beat the parking time limit.

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Shorelark

Shorelark

Shorelark

On the way home we made a stop at Cockley Cley, Lynford and Santon Downham where we added just  Woodlark to the year list.

Black Scoter is my 448th British bird, my 165th this year and my 302nd for Norfolk

(Woodlark took the year list to 166)

This Scoter would have completed the Scoter set for the British list if they hadn't have just this week added Stejneger's Scoter to the official list so I still have one to find but with my reluctance to travel I think it could be a while before this set is now completed.