My photos of this bird, which surfaced only briefly between dives, were taken with a pocket camera (x30) in fairly poor - though dry - conditions. I need to say more to justify my ID, and to exclude Tufted Duck.
Photos 1 and 2 show the typical Scaup head shape: steep forehead and rounded rear crown with no tuft or 'bump'.
Photo 2 shows well that the black on the bill is confined to the nail. All Tufteds I have seen have more black on the bill than this.
The photos - especially 3 - show grey on the bird's back. In Tufted the pale(r) flank is sharply demarcated from the dark back.
The belly, visible as it dived, was 'dirty' white. I have only seen pristine white bellies on Tufteds.
That's it! Comments welcome. (I am disappointed that no-one has been willing to give an opinion on Nick's gull: the worst that can happen is that someone disagrees with what one has said).
5 comments:
Hi Pete.
I went up to Ringstone this afternoon, and all I could see were Tufted Ducks. That's obviously not to say that any of those were your bird, but just to let you know I went up and didn't see any Scaup present.
For me though your bird is a Tufted Duck, although I am making observations from three photos, which is never the same as field views.
However...
I'm afraid I must disagree with your comments on head shape on this bird. The overall structure of the head should be more rounded than it appears in this bird. The last photo especially seems to show quite a pronounced angle at the back of the head. Alone this makes this bird a Tufted Duck, for me.
Obviously though, you saw the bird in the field and that is worth far more than any comments I could make from these photos
Thanks very much Daniel; it's great to have some feedback. I do disagree though. I don't think we can make a definite ID from what you see as a 'pronounced angle at the back of the head' when the feathers are being blown in a force 4 wind. What is crucial is that there is no tuft or definite 'bump' here.
Also, photo 1 shows that the forehead climbs steeply and then angles back onto the crown - typical of Scaup. In contrast, the forehead of Tufted curves smoothly backwards from bill to crown.
Other Scaup features are the black on the bill being confined to the nail, and the grey back.
However, I think I was wrong yesterday to attach significance to the 'dirty' white belly: I guess the belly of an eclipse Tufted would also be this colour.
Good morning Peter.
I have shown the photos to people I know from Spurn who agree that the bird is a Tufted Duck based on these photos. They concurred that the head shape is too angled for Scaup.
While the black tip on the bill is a feature of Scaup, I personally have found it to be an unreliable feature as Tufted Ducks can also sometimes have very limited black on the bill tip as well. I had a similar issue with a Tufted Duck at Gorple last year.
Thanks again Daniel for your thoughts on this bird. I note what you say, but I still think it is a Scaup, so we are going to have to agree to disagree.
I hope the Spurn people were looking at the photos on a laptop, not a phone. Did they have anything to say about the possible effect of the wind on the outline of the rear crown, or about the bird's steep forehead, or about the fact that its body is grey?
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