With a few hours spare, I headed east to Tophill Low to look for a juvenile Blue-winged Teal that had shown up the night before. This is a duck I long to find in the Lower Derwent Valley, so I wanted to refamiliarise myself with the species ahead of the influx of wildfowl into the valley in coming months. To my delight, shortly before I arrived a message came through to say birders twitching the first BWT had identified a second bird, an eclipse drake!
I met up with Lee Johnson and together we enjoyed great views of both birds, paddling about in the lagoon and loafing on the islands. The juvenile was quite a distinctive bird, with a long slightly Shoveler-esque black bill, neat white loral spot and eye-ring contrasting with a neat black eye-stripe. The lack of a white tail stripe was a good feature too. the sky-blue wing coverts were seen once or twice when the bird was preening.
The eclipse drake had a slightly more subdued face pattern, rufous underparts and more worn upperpart feathers. Nevertheless, with a good view, the female-esque head pattern was noticeable. It turns out this was a Yorkshire tick for me, so a bonus.
Also present, a dapper juvenile Ruff, adult Little Gull, several Green Sandpipers, Water Rail and a Marsh Harrier.
Little Gull, Lapwing, Blue-winged Teal (right hand duck), Teal
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