Scoter on Arran

Reports

In February 2026 there were sightings of a pair of Surf Scoter off Pirnmill between the 17^th and the end of the month.

The scoters are stocky sea ducks in the genus Melanitta. This name combines the Ancient Greek melas meaning "black" and netta meaning "duck".Indeed the drakes are mostly black and have swollen bills, the females are brown. There are six species of scoter. They breed in the far north of Europe, Asia, and North America and winter further south in temperate zones of those continents. They can form large flocks on suitable coastal waters. These are tightly packed, and the birds tend to take off together. These species dive for crustaceans and molluscs.

Three scoter species have been recorded in Arran coastal waters in the winter. Common Scoter, it breeds over the far north of Europe and the Palearctic east to the Olenyok River in northern Siberia. Velvet Scoter, it has a similar breeding range to the Common Scoter breeding over the far north of Europe and the Palearctic west of the Yenisey basin in Siberia. Surf Scoter, on the other hand, is a native of North America, breeding in Northern Canada and Alaska and wintering along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America.

From the records of these three species on Arran in the last ten years none could be described as “common” but they are very dark sea ducks wintering often in rough coastal seas so may be being over-looked and under-reported. In the last ten years there have been around fifty reports of Common Scoter on Arran. Only eight of these reports were of more than ten birds, the largest group was thirty-eight in Cosyden on 8 April 2020. The other European scoter, the Velvet Scoter, has been reported twice on Arran and only once in the last ten years, a male in Cosyden on 14 October 2019. The North American scoter, the Surf Scoter has been reported on three occasions in the last ten years.

The first occasion that a Surf Scoter was reported on Arran, was a single female type bird that lingered off-shore from Whitefarland, through Pirnmill to Catacol from 24 November 2019 to 1 January 2020. ( For more information click here. )The second occasion was again a single female type bird ( either a female or a young male) that lingered off shore around Pirnmill from 3 March 2025 to 9 March 2025. (For more information here.) The third and most recent occasion was last month, February 2026, when a male and female were reported again off Pirnmill between 17 February 2026 and the end of the month.

I wonder if it will linger into March this year.

All photographs, illustrating this article, the male and female Surf Scoter at the top of the page and the male and female Common Scoter at the bottom were provided by Dennis Morrison.