A few images from Venus pool today.......
The star here was the drake Green-winged Teal in the centre of the picture. It differs from our (Common) Teal in having a vertical white line on the side of the breast as opposed to horizontal along the body. It also has reduced yellow in the outline to the green head. The log in the hide said this bird was present and it took 30 minutes of hard searching before it suddenly appeared: and then 10 minutes later it disappeared again!
Here is a drake (Common) Teal on the left; and the drake Green-winged Teal on the right clarifying these differences. Ducks of these two species cannot reliably be separated.
Closer than they ever are at the lake – 3 drake and one duck Wigeon.
A duck Wigeon with a Moorhen.
Close-up of this preening drake Wigeon reveals a complex pattern.
A drake Shoveler ploughs through the water!
Also closer than they ever are at the lake.
Another bird that just ‘appeared’ and a bogey bird for me this year – a fine drake Pintail. The number of places I have been where the log book has reported Pintail for the previous day. This species is the least common duck, apart from true rarities, in our area [3 Teal, 3 Lapwing, a Moorhen and a Coot also in the shot]
(Ed Wilson)
