Adult male Tufted in eclipse
1st winter female Goldeneye left, Ad female right
Note speculum bars and neck collar on ad, RH bird.
1st winter female Goldeneye
Male eclipse tufted
Ad female Goldeneye
1st winter bird taking off
Made it
Adult female.
2 Moorhen present.
With Fly Flatts once again blanked off the face of the earth with fog it gave me a good excuse to head back to Mixenden to sort out the Goldeneyes and Tufted there which I only saw through the mist yesterday.
With dog grooming to attend to I managed to have 1 hour spare, 1330 - 1430 hrs where the weather was better than yesterday though still a slight mist and dull skies brightening slightly as the hour moved on and just enough light to get some viewable shots even though the birds were very flighty with some nugget blasting a 12 bore shotgun just over the wall in the wood which was a bit unnerving for me, never mind the ducks.
The 2 Goldeneye turned out to be an adult female and a first winter female which explained the difference in speculum and head shape whilst the Tufted which I thought was a female is actually a winter plumage male in eclipse.
2 Moorhen were also present but elusive whilst the long hedge, which is now growing well after being lobbed down a few year ago, held several Great and Blue Tits , Dunnocks, Robins and Wrens.
BS