Help with some duck ID's please

bob.phillips · #1 (**permalink**) 06-09-2009, 05:15 PM

Spotted these on a walk around Tring reservoir recently. The first was taken into the sun so it's difficult to see the detail, but is it a shoveler?
The last 2 were in amongst a group of mallards so are they some sort of mallard cross?

Thanks for any help.

Bob P.

Jason Green · #2 (**permalink**) 06-09-2009, 05:45 PM

Hi Bob,

#1: Long bill... Shoveler I'd say

#2: Perhaps female Red-crested Pochard?

The other two look like hybrid types IMO.

Take care,

Jason

bob.phillips · #3 (**permalink**) 06-09-2009, 08:09 PM

Thanks Jason. I thought Shoveler because of the long bill but still not sure about the second one.

Regards,

Bob P.

aeshna5 · #4 (**permalink**) 06-09-2009, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bob.phillips

Thanks Jason. I thought Shoveler because of the long bill but still not sure about the second one.

Regards,

Bob P.

It is a female RC Pochard as Jason suggested.

bob.phillips · #5 (**permalink**) 06-09-2009, 09:16 PM

Wow. Thanks Aeshna and Jason for ID help on picture 2. I've never seen one before so this is great news.
Thanks again,

Bob P.

Jonners · #6 (**permalink**) 06-09-2009, 09:59 PM

I don't like to cause an argument, but I don't reckon #1 is a Shoveler; neck looks too long and bill not long enough. Looks more like Mallard-ish shape to me.

stevensi · #7 (**permalink**) 07-09-2009, 08:52 AM

I'd have to agree about picture 1 it's certainly not a shoveler I would agree with a mallard.

bob.phillips · #8 (**permalink**) 07-09-2009, 04:49 PM

Isn't the bill a bit long for a mallard??

Is there any cross breeding of mallard and shoveler?

Bob P.

Pete Collins · #9 (**permalink**) 07-09-2009, 05:13 PM

The second photo shows a female Red-crested Pochard, as aeshna5 and Jason have already said.

I also saw one at Tring Reservoirs, earlier this year, and it had a duckling with it! The duckling could have been a hybrid, but I did see on another web site that both male and female RC Pochards had been seen there, so it could have been a genuine British-born RC Pochard (even though its parents were almost certainly escapees).

Coincidentally, I also saw a female Red-crested Pochard in a small wildfowl collection I walked past this morning.

davidbr · #10 (**permalink**) 07-09-2009, 06:06 PM

The first photo shows a silhouetted female Mallard and the second is, indeed, Red-crested Pochard. There's no absolute reason why it couldn't be a genuine vagrant, especially at this time of year, but the population at large in the UK is increasing and there's an established breeding colony at the Cotswold Water Park, Gloucestershire/Wiltshire, nowadays.

Young from there do, I believe, disperse widely across southern England.