Looking For Yearticks In All The Wrong Places

'Two Scaup at Beesands' had me sallying forth, the day after a good long hard look at the Nose [in nasty windy but not good enough to seawatch conditions] got me.. Well, yeah, you remember down there ::points to post::

Anyways, Beesands was...Sunny.

This is October?

So there were at least 15 Tufted Ducks - juveniles and moulting-out-of-eclipse birds - and these two prospective juvenile Scaup. [Also a few other bits and pieces I'll get to]

They were... Unhelpful.

Very very unhelpful.

After hours [yes, hours] this is the best pic I got of the least tufted duck there;

Well, itsa duck...

Black restricted to nail [how much of nail impossible to tell], head shape - especially bump on rear crown - a wingbar clearly divided into white inner and grey outer, and general 'offness' next to Tufties made this one look rather a lot like a Lesser Scaup. [I ought to also say it was more or less Tufty-sized.!]

BUT I never got the proper clear close view I really wanted. Always distant, always mobile; that shot taken through reeds from the seaward side of the Ley.

One thing I am certain of is that there were no [Greater] Scaup present!

Oh well.

Itsanother duck

[or is it?]

Viewing never easy, with the light being unhelpful, too.

I suspect the 'other' one is a Tufted with bill damage, or possibly some Scaup [of some sort] genes, as it looked more like a 'funny Tufty' than anything else.

 

I'm just glad I'm not writing the rarity form...

Now this is a view I could have used,

Pintail and Gadwall

See how well those little diving buggers could have behaved?

Ahem.

I gave the sea a go, as The Boss had had Big Shears rain upon him from Start Point the day before, and, well,

What a co-incidence!

I got a large shearwater spp. - too fast and in too much gunk to say which - and a Manxie before the rain set in hard. Nothing passing close, even the Gannets were well out...

Oh well 

[again]

Worth a try.

Here's something which DID behave,

Chicory

Foiled again,

but that's birding.

[And you have to check. Look. Look again....]

Be Seeing You...