20 July
Margus found the bird flying alone at about one kilometer and shouted to me to get a photo. I grabbed the camera and managed to get a couple as it rose against the sky. Then I grabbed my scope, ran around the corner and managed to get into view in the scope. Unusually for this species it was still showing its head well, even though it had already passed us, and I was able to enjoy the strange features.

21 July
Alar was in Estonia on a short trip and decided to join us on one day. He arrived, said Hello and called out a small flock of Velvet Scoters approaching high and close. As soon as I got the flock into my bins, I recognized the second bird as a Stejneger’s and called out. Not sure what I actually said, but the others got the message from my tone. I grabbed my camera and got some shots just as it passed us. From behind it was unfortunately no longer recognizable, as is usually the case.

The numbers of Velvet Scoters have so far been quite small, and in earlier years, of a total of less than 20 Stejneger’s, all were seen in September or October, along with the main passage of adult male Velvets.

Annika