Sunday, 19 January 2014

Two Green-winged Teals - Newgale Marsh

Watching Newgale marsh from the pub car park today, Dave Gibbs and I saw 2 drake Green-winged Teals simultaneously.  One appeared to be full adult with a crisp black line along the upper edge of the flank and well-developed long grey scapulars;  while the other didn't show the black line or long scaps but did show some irregular brown-barred feathering where the black line should have been.  Both were clearly drakes, both displayed with head bobbing at times, and both showed the classic reduced cream lines on the head and obvious vertical white line at the breast side.  Both also showed a brownish breast.  So I would say 1x adult and 1x sub-adult perhaps.

We had great views of both over about 20 mins at around 1pm and I rang the news straight in to Birdguides at the time.
Andy Mears - Bath