Unknown bird

[fleur]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I did go back with my camera. Sadly it isn't a very good one and the ducks were too far away to get a good pic, they were just dots on the water. I realised that there were two this time and assume one is the male, it didn't have the white at the base of the bill. They are quite short bodied so possibly the scaup. I did wonder about ducks in eclipse. I had looked at a few on line but nothing quite matches them. Will see if one of the rangers is around the next time, perhaps they can help. Not a soul around when I went back yesterday.

[Jason Green]

Even if you think the pic's bad, it may still be good enough for us to make an ID from...

[aeshna5]

Though they could be Scaup, I suspect the're not as they are more of a winter visitor + more of a sea duck, though they do turn up occasionally on inland lakes.

[fleur]

Went back today with daylight, as opposed to falling light. The ranger was in so I had a word. He showed me pictures of scaup and tufted in eclipse. They both look similar to me and wasn't sure which they were. He was going out later to check and he seemed quite pleased I'd called in. There have been scaup reported there before. Seems I missed a smew last year! Will let you know what the verdict is during the next few days.