When the wind falls away, rising from the water is rather difficult, but their flight is strong and swift once underway. During migration, and in calm weather with light winds, the ducks are apt to fly at great heights, whereas windy and stormy weather induces them to fly close to the waves. Rarely diving in water that exceeds 30 feet deep, Surf Scoters forage in the zone of breaking waves, and habitually dive through foaming wave crests. Gulls, especially Glaucous-winged Gulls, often force surfacing ducks to relinquish their prey, thus flocks frequently dive in unison. This possibly promotes synchronous surfacing, when groups are less likely to be kleptoparasitized than individual ducks due to the swamping effect.
Immense rafts congregate in regions supporting extensive mussel beds.
Hundreds of thousands winter in the coastal waters off British Columbia alone, and 200,000 scoters could consume about 43 tons of mussel meat daily. The most abundant wintering Pacific coast scoter, Surf Scoters favor shallow waters in bays, estuaries and river mouths. Even so, some winter inland, and the ducks can be fairly numerous on the Great Lakes. Vagrants regularly appear in Europe. These pages and images are provided for your personal viewing only.