Maybe not as gaudy as their mates, hen Surf Scoters are nonetheless good-looking geese. Erika and I took this picture on 7 February 2022 on the Billy Frank Jr Nationwide Wildlife Refuge. Every season, Surf Scoters return to the identical breeding and wintering areas. Males, females, and younger, nonetheless, migrate individually and should use completely different routes. Surf Scoters winter alongside each North American coasts. Though there’s some overlap of their breeding ranges, western and japanese birds seem like trustworthy to both the Pacific or Atlantic coasts (Anderson et al. 2020).