Ring-necked Duck still there at 4pm Friday.

-- Edited by Davd Coupe on Saturday 20th of February 2021 10:02:29 AM

The ring-necked duck was still showing well at lunchtime, well worth the walk!

Tony Coatsworth wrote:

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Pretty dark first thing today but a welcome sight. Only 1.5 miles away so I think that's OK in these lockdown times 

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Indeed, I didn't expect to get a chance to walk to a GM tick, I'm really pleased. You have to laugh when you are year-ticking Tufted Duck at the same time. I got Collared Dove for the yearlist on the way. Crazy times...

Lucky this is next to where I work, so nipped in this morning to see the still present female Ring Necked Duck. 

Associating with 40+Tufted Duck but noticeably smaller and lighter brown flanks. Head tucked in most of the time.

Also present were 2+ Ring Necked Parakeet, 2 Mute Swan and Grey Heron. 

Ring-necked Duck female still present this morning Tufted Duck numbers similar to yesterday at 56 Cormorant 1

-- Edited by Pete Hines on Friday 19th of February 2021 09:43:35 AM

Thursday 18th Feb

- female Ring-necked Duck (2CY?)
5 mins from Lucass nursery so I thought why not, go and have a ganders. A fantastic little duck, bit timid but was tempted by a bit of bread that was thrown by a couple of non-birders, and inevitably showed well, close in on the duck pond alongside plenty of Tufted Duck.

Also...
- 2 Grey Wagtail
- Ring-necked Parakeets, few dotted around
- 1 female Tufted Duck showing a white blaze

Goosander 3
Little Grebe 1
Common Gull 3
Herring Gull 2
Cormorant 2
Chiffchaff 1
Goldcrest 2
Redwing 37

Kingfisher this morning on central island of lake, seen from Demesne Road side.

In the snow today:
the lake was partially iced, with some Blackheaded gulls floating and others standing on ice.
Heron standing on the high nest at the south of the island. Other nests empty, as yet.
Pair of Shovelers circling each other in the east channel.
Mallards, Tufted ducks, Canada geese, Mute swans, Coot, Moorhens.
Ringnecked parakeets over.

After the lake partially froze last week, the Goosanders moved elsewhere - probably the Mersey. at 11am today, there were none, but a male Shoveler was present.

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Tuesday 1st of January 2019 02:56:38 PM

Three or so hours or so round here this morning to early afternoon:

1 coal tit
3+ nuthatch
10+ goldfinch
5 chaffinch
1 bullfinch
2+ pied wagtail
3 starling
6+ redwing
3+ mistle thrush
46 carrion crow together on grassed area
1 great spotted woodpecker
8+ moorhen
7 coot
10 tufted duck
6 goosander (5 redhead)
3 mute swan (one adult with blue darvic 4CUN, juvenile, also ringed, frequently coughing)
1 grey heron
130+ black-headed gull
5 common gull
2 lesser black-backed gull
1 herring gull

Goosander 16 (3 males) early pm

When I moved to a flat by the park 3 years ago, there was a resident leucistic blackbird with a white head. That one disappeared last year and another with a different white pattern turned up - I wondered if it was a son of the first.

11:30 at the lake.

Goosander 15 [2m, 13 redhead]

Mute swan 2 adult 1 young swan. I hope the other was hiding somewhere - on the island perhaps - but it is worrying, as 3 young went down to 2 a few weeks ago. They are swan-sized now. Earlier in the year, 5 cygnets were reduced to 3.

Mallards, Tufted ducks, Canada geese, Moorhens & Coots as usual. Also Blackheaded gulls.

2 Herons.

Goosander 11, 2 male and 9 redhead. (13.30 -14.00)

Yesterday 14-11-2018

Goosander 8 (7 redhead)
Tufted Duck 16
Herring Gull 3 juv
Common Gull 3 ad

I wrote to the Oriental Bird Club regarding the identification of Spot-billed Duck and the recent birds at Fog Lane Park and Alexandra Park Lake, here is the reply:

"Thank you for contacting OBC with your Spot-billed Duck images. We do not claim to be expert in the identification of this or any other species we are simply enthusiastic volunteers who give our time to run the Club; we have no paid staff. However, we do spend time in the region and have seen the species you mention in the wild, so we pass on our opinions below and apologise if we mention various aspects you already know.

Three Spot-billed Duck races had been recognised in the past, two have now been accepted as full species:

Indian (Western) Spot-billed Duck Anas poecilorhyncha with two taxa recognised, nominate form found across South Asia from the Indus valley in the west to west Assam and harringtoni found from east Assam, Myanmar through South-East Asia to south China.

Chinese (Eastern) Spot-billed Duck A. zonorhyncha which overlaps in range with Indian species in the west of its range which extends east into Far East Russia (including Sakhalin Island) and Mongolia, Korea and Japan.

There are morphological differences between the taxa whilst haringtoni and zonorhyncha have been found breeding sympatrically in China, seeming to be good confirmation of their new status.

This brings us to your birds:

The first bird (Fog Lane Park) looks like Eastern/Chinese Spot-billed, admittedly a rather pale one, but the lack of red at the base of the bill indicates Eastern.

The second bird (Alexandra Park Lake) on the other hand, does have red at the base of the bill and is therefore Indian Spot-billed Duck. There are many Spot-bills in collections and there is no knowing if they are all marked. Hybrids with Mallard do occur and images of them can be found on the internet. The hybrids we have encountered are frequently quite different from either species; it appears unlikely to us that these birds have any Mallard in them. There is quite an interesting set of images taken in Japan of Spot-billed/Mallard hybrids which we suggest you examine (http://birdingkyoto.blogspot.com/2016/12/spot-billed-duck-x-mallard-hybrids.html). We also suggest you look at our 'OrientalBirdImages' website (http://orientalbirdimages.org/).

We hope our comments are of some use and interest to you."

Thanks to the Oriental Bird Club for these comments

The photo is of the recent bird on Alexandra Park Lake, 3rd August 2018

The drake Spot-billed Duck "type" still present this morning, I spent some time watching, photographing and filming this educational bird! My opinion is that it has some Mallard influence (the head pattern, green sheen to the crown and rufous tones on the breast), it is un-ringed and probably fully-winged (see open wing photo)

Pete Hines wrote:

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/>Indian Spot-billed Duck 1m

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Indian Spot-billed Duck/Mallard hydrid?

Thanks, Rob. Interesting. It wasn't there at 2 today.

Amongst the usual Canada Geese on the lake, there is a ringed hybrid goose, found on Thursday by Tony O'Mahoney. It is there again today. Maybe a Martinmere bird? Possible Snow x Canada, or Snow x Barnacle. The yellow on beak and legs doesn't seem to be on the Snow-Canadas I've looked up. Any ideas welcome.

In the middle of a picturesque but desolate, snowbound Alex Park, 2 pairs of Shoveler are busy circling.

Midday

Shoveler 1
Tufted Duck 40

12.45-13.05

Goosander 1 female
Shoveler 1 male
Tufted Duck 37
Lesser Black-backed Gull 2