eraser time

Various posts on the blog and discussions here and elsewhere centred around the identification of a Ferruginous type Duck at Barton in October / November 2011 and September 2012 -- oddly I picked it up again on the pits on November 17th but without a scope and got some distant images that indicated it had not become a typical adult drake in that the head was still dark in colour and the profile still did not look like a classic Ferruginous but it was asleep almost all the time; it soon disappeared again but I found t in the duck flock on the Humber off New Holland on January 11th albeit distantly in poor light -- the fact that it was on the Humber with Tufted Ducks did not seem right for Ferruginous Duck and the head still looked dark though it should have been in full adult winter plumage -- today I found it again on a small pit and confirmed that the head is still dark brown, with a mahogany tint, the crown is just not peaked enough, the bill is probably too long but has black extending back from the nail along the cutting edges and it has a white band behind the black nail. As this spot was over 2 miles from where I parked I had no camera with me just the scope so the only images I got were with an old iphone down the scope before it flew off back to the Humber. The iris is now bright white and it is clearly to a large degree a Ferruginous Duck but certainly not 100% -- so notebooks out and erasers in action -- another salutary lesson in duck ID
Top 3 images iphone scoped Jan 26th bottom 3 November 17th 2012