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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Ducks of today! (1 Viewer)

E

EdvardH

Well-known member
West coast Norway - taken today. They were seen in freshwater some way up some hills. Not far from the sea, though.

Still in my "first year" lightweight birding here. Today I saw some ducks which I couldn't quite recognise. Maybe they haven't been around here earlier - maybe the plummage differs from what I have seen previously - maybe they are juveniles - or maybe I just haven't seen them already. I don't know.

The first two photos are of the same birds. The second photo is a shot slightly more from the side of the bird to the right in the first photo.
 

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1 - Scaup
2 - Scaup
3 - Wigeon
4 - Scaup
5 - Goldeneye (female)

I'm not 100% sure so I'd love to learn from others who know the right answer.
 
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#1 left bird female Greater Scaup, right one female-type Common Goldeneye.
#2 Common Goldeneye.
#3 female Eurasian Wigeon.
#4 left, 1st. winter male Common Goldeneye, right Greater Scaup.
#5 female Common Goldeneye.

Chris
 
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Just curious... over there is there considered to be one species of scaup, or two like here in NA?

1: the right bird is a female Common Goldeneye
2: Common Goldeneye
3: Eurasian Wigeon (agreeing with justin)
4: left bird is another Common Goldeneye
5: Common Goldeneye
 
Little SuperBirder said:
Just curious... over there is there considered to be one species of scaup, or two like here in NA?

1: the right bird is a female Common Goldeneye
2: Common Goldeneye
3: Eurasian Wigeon (agreeing with justin)
4: left bird is another Common Goldeneye
5: Common Goldeneye
Click to expand...

Lesser Scaup is a vagrant to most European countries so when we say 'Scaup' it's the resident Greater Scaup that's meant.

Chris
 
Little SuperBirder said:
Just curious... over there is there considered to be one species of scaup, or two like here in NA?
Click to expand...

The lesser scaup is only a very rare visitor here in Norway. In the national database of bird observations, there is only one or two records of it a year. None in 2013. A majority of those observations is on the west coast, not very far from here I live.

The greater scaup is fairly common winter visitor around here. Not so common as quite a few other ducks though.
 
Ah. It seems so strange that Lesser (much more common here) could be rare anywhere. It's funny to think our common birds are your rare birds and vice versa.
 
chris butterworth said:
#1 left bird female Greater Scaup, right one female-type Common Goldeneye.
#2 Common Goldeneye.
#3 female Eurasian Wigeon.
#4 left, 1st. winter male Common Goldeneye, right Greater Scaup.
#5 female Common Goldeneye.

Chris
Click to expand...


Thanks to you all.

One question about behaviour here. The two birds in the first photo (female greater scaup and female common goldeneye). I didn't observe them for long. But when I came they took off together, and continued to swim together a little bit further away. Why would they swim together like a pair?

I should have taken that wigeon. I remeber seeing a small group of wigeons at the same place last winter. But it is sort of the male wigeon that comes most easily to mind...
 
David Norgate said:
I would have thought #4 contains Goldeneye and Tufted Duck rather than Scaup?
Click to expand...
I guess we should triple-check every tufted/scaup duck. We have both at the Sava-Danube confluence right now (the easily recognizable male tufted and white-faced female scaup, and a number of drabber individuals that are either one or the other; so far I am satisfied with placing a check mark by both species as at least one of each is certainly present). I wouldn't dare to identify anything as a Lesser Scaup and it would probably not be accepted anyway as I don't have a good camera to take pics (and it would be a mega rarity down here).

This is a very interesting thread for me as I do not have Goldeneye on my life list yet. Now I see they are as large or larger than scaup, and I always thought goldeneyes are small ducks.
 
EdvardH said:
Thanks to you all.

One question about behaviour here. The two birds in the first photo (female greater scaup and female common goldeneye). I didn't observe them for long. But when I came they took off together, and continued to swim together a little bit further away. Why would they swim together like a pair?

I should have taken that wigeon. I remeber seeing a small group of wigeons at the same place last winter. But it is sort of the male wigeon that comes most easily to mind...
Click to expand...

Probably because you spooked them so they flew to where they felt safe. Also safety in numbers.
 
KGS said:
Yes, Tufted Duck to the right in #4
Click to expand...

How so? I'm just trying to figure it out how to separate them?

No other tufted ducks nearby, and I usual see them together in a group. No top as far as I can see? Colours of the plummage looks very much like the previous photos deemed to be greater scaup? I see no white around the root of the bill, but can that be the angle?
 
Andy Hurley said:
Probably because you spooked them so they flew to where they felt safe. Also safety in numbers.
Click to expand...

Yes, I spooked them. But I still found it strange that the two different species swam together (swimming close together and following each other). The take off and continued behaviour made it seem no coincidence. And it was not many ducks around either, so it was not a case of two flocks of birds who happend to be at the same place. In all I saw 7-10 ducks (greater scaups, wigeon(s), goldeneyes and possible tufted duck).

So is it usual that different kinds of ducks do that?
 
And how about these two?

The closes match I find in my book is the eclipse male common eider. I though the eclipse phase was late-summerish or something like that?
 

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