Common Scoter
Surfbirds News: RSPB Archives
Drastic decline in one of UK's rarest ducks
The UK's most threatened breeding duck has suffered further drastic declines over the last decade with their population nearly halved, according to alarming new survey results.
Common scoters - plump, jet black diving ducks with long tails and bright yellow beaks on the male - have also experienced marked reductions in their UK range in the same period, with the remaining breeding population now restricted to isolated and remote freshwater lochs of northern Scotland.
Common Scoters, West Yorkshire © Sean Gray, from the Surfbirds galleries
The species has been surveyed nationally only once before in 1995, and the 2007 count was conducted to assess changes in common scoter numbers in the intervening years. Just 52 pairs were recorded in 2007, compared with 95 pairs in 1995 - a 45% drop in their numbers. The survey was a partnership between the RSPB, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. Fieldwork was conducted by four dedicated RSPB scoter surveyors working alongside RSPB regional and reserves staff, a team of WWT surveyors, and other volunteers.
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