Sunday, January 16, 2011

Scaup


First Winter male Scaup, Milton Country Park, 16th January 2011 © Jonathan Heath
'We first spotted this duck in the morning whilst doing WeBS but as we only had binoculars we were not entirely sure and couldn't entirely rule out a hybrid.
After looking at a few reference books and pictures on the computer we decided to go back armed with a scope.
Luckily the bird was still around, accompanying a few Tufted Duck, but spent most of the time asleep.
...after looking at it through the scope we were sure that the bird in question was a 1st winter male Scaup, a good record for Milton Country Park as the last one spotted here during a WeBS count was exactly 30 years ago!.' D&J Heath

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