Friday 7 March 2014

Weird and wonderful waterfowl

An interesting couple of hours at the farmlands this afternoon.
 Presumed hybrid Chestnut Teal x (Yellow-billed Pintail?). The red eye, chestnut tones and white auxillaries and underwing coverts (below) seems to suggest Chestnut Teal to be one of the parents. The yellowish-tinged basal area of the bill and the wide edging to the secondaires perhaps suggests Yellow-billed Pintail as the other parent but the contrasting crown and nape don't seem to fit either species. Hybrids ducks can show features and colours that are not necessarily present on either parent so its all a bit of guess work.

Male Common Teals fighting over a female
Love was in the air this afternoon
Tough love when it comes to Mallards
Great Cormorants
Small Brindled Beauty- also 5 Common Quakers and Clouded Drab in the trap last night. A few bees about today and ladybirds emerging.  

3 comments:

mike N. said...

How about Silver Teal?

Unknown said...

I'm getting excited that spring really is coming with the moths and insects that are starting to emerge.

No idea on the duck, hybrids seem to be such a hard one to assign to parentage.

Peter Alfrey said...

Silver Teal does have the cap and also the yellow at base of bill so potentially yes. The broad cream infused pale secondary tips seems at odds.