A walk down the River Medway between East Farleigh and Barming Bridges turned up a good count of ducks for this stretch of the river; 26x Tufted Ducks, 4x Pochard (3 male/1 female) and 1x Gadwall (a first for me on this stretch of water). Thirty-one Cormorants and a Kingfisher were also seen. However one bird stood out from the flock as it quite an extensive area of white around the base of the bill. It lacked the greyish vermiculations I'd expect on a Scaup, but did not have a 'tuft', had a less-angled head and lacked black on it's bill. The 'pale' area on the flanks seemed more extensive then on the neighbouring Tufted Ducks. It probably is a Tufted but I wondered if there was any possibility it was Tufted X Scaup hybrid?
2 comments:
Interesting Tuftie duck Adam, I wouldn't say it was a hybrid though. But thats only my opinion :-)
Could it be a mix with a naughty ruddy duck?
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