Saturday 5 October 2013

Mystery Duck?

I have been concentrating on my local patches recently, fitting in a few quick after work birding sessions before the light beats me.
Anyway, a couple of evenings in the week have led to me briefly sighting an unusually marked duck on one of the pools I keep an eye on. The bird is very spooky and seeks cover as soon as it spots anyone walking the banks. So, the distance it puts between us combined with fading light had not made getting a decent picture possible. So, Saturday found me on a warm and bright October morning in search for this duck again.
My usual birding companion
I can't resist snapping a few pictures with my iPhone while walking round. Smartphones these days take incredibly good pictures.

Shaggy Inkcap
After just enjoying the stroll, I again stumbled upon my mystery duck. It did its usual trick and put some distance between us. This time however in much better light conditions my Canon SX40 managed to capture some decent ID shots.
Marbled Duck
I still couldn't make up my mind what this duck was, but now I had some pictures to research it.
Pete though got straight onto it and contacted me later in the day. Pete's verdict, Marbled Duck! It has since been confirmed that Pete was bang on the money with his ID.
Marbled Duck -This species is viewed by most birders as a likely vagrant to Britain, and Marbled Duck is accepted onto Category A of Birdwatch'sBirds of Britain:
This is very likely an escapee from a collection somewhere, but who knows?
Will update this if anymore news on this bird is forthcoming.

Update.......

Jon and I went out this morning and relocated this Marbled Duck. It was stood in very shallow water and using a scope, we could make out what seemed to be a red coloured ring on its left leg.
 It seems that this duck has a little history ,"Presumably the same bird was seen at 2 separate sites in south Derbys in late August. It had a red/orange ring on its left leg."

 this information is taken from  www.birdforum.co.uk

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