Shoveler plumage? Blacktoft Sands RSPB (1 Viewer)

[stevethehydra]

Is this normal for the time of year?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/30234003665/in/album-72157673832470210/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/29604516513/in/album-72157673832470210/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/29604532243/in/album-72157673832470210/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/29937371360/in/album-72157673832470210/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/30233976775/in/album-72157673832470210/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/30199166636/in/album-72157673832470210/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/29937353460/in/album-72157673832470210/

 

[aeshna5]

I occasionally see birds like this. Assume they are first winter birds.

 

[stevethehydra]

I ask because a) most of the other male Shovelers present looked roughly like this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/30148601601/in/album-72157673832470210/ which is what I expect for Shovelers on their way out of eclipse, and b) that individual brought back memories of a bird I saw alongside a "normal-looking" male Shoveler in a London park (can't remember which one off the top of my head) a few years ago, also in October if I remember rightly, which I had assumed to be a plastic Australian or NZ Shoveler - but I'm now wondering if I was wrong about it, if Northern Shovelers in October can look like this!

 

[rafnuss]

If you're looking at the vertical white strips between bill and eye, this is normal on male eclipse as well as the grey head.
I would have ID the bird on the picture as such.

 

[stevethehydra]

I went for a trawl through old photos and found the ones I was thinking of - it was in Kew Gardens, October 2009. There were 3 shoveler-types together - a typical male Northern Shoveler, a Red Shoveler, and the bird that this one reminded me of, which is in photos 2743 and 2746: https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/sets/72157675292000126

I thought at the time it was an Australian Shoveler, but now I'm wondering if it could actually have been just a Northern a bit further along its transition from eclipse to breeding plumage than the Blacktoft bird?

(or 3rd option given who it was with - Northern x Red Shoveler hybrid??)