Saturday, January 08, 2011

Lesser Scaup? Tufted Duck or somewhere in between?????

a series of shots of the bird at Hatfield Moors -- its rather approachable, well it approaches you;




















but  a few questions --- are the underwing and upperwing patterns quite right? is the bill colour too dark for a first-winter female? is the head shape within the range of variation and also the white on the forehead? I am certainly no expert on these first-winters --
Sorry for all the images but I wanted to cover all angles in case anyone sees something to say 100% yeh or nay to the ID

2 comments:

midlands birder said...

i recently watched the 1st winter lesser scaup at slimbridge, and i was under the impression that 1st winters have brown (or darkish) eyes and not orange/yellow as this bird is, and as you say the darkish bill???
mmm???
wait for the experts....
MB

Dominic Gendron said...

Not sure about the i.d. ...but i love the serie ;)