Birds, masses of them...can you name them?

[laurencea]

i'm sticking with cormorants as they look too big to be shags.

[Testudo Man]

Originally Posted by vawn

little fatter than a cormorant could be a shag, look very similar? n the coots too

Ive zoomed right up close into these photos...

They look more like Cormorants, than they do Shags

[Ozgi]

100% cormorants.

There's also a couple of domestic/farm geese in the second pic.

[Testudo Man]

Originally Posted by Ozgi

100% cormorants.

There's also a couple of domestic/farm geese in the second pic.

Domestic/farm geese??...as in the white ones?...



I managed to find some of these, on the same day too...They look like Tufted ducks...

[laurencea]

they are, indeed, tufties. great little ducks.

the domestic ones are the white ones - they could be escapees gone wild - it happens a lot. often they will team up with wild ducks and you can get some good colour variations if they breed, although sometimes the offspring can be barren.

near me there have been quite a few greylags pairing up with canada geese. the offspring cause a lot of confusion with birders.

[Testudo Man]

Originally Posted by laurencea

they are, indeed, tufties. great little ducks.

the domestic ones are the white ones - they could be escapees gone wild - it happens a lot. often they will team up with wild ducks and you can get some good colour variations if they breed, although sometimes the offspring can be barren.

near me there have been quite a few greylags pairing up with canada geese. the offspring cause a lot of confusion with birders.

I take it the brown tufties are the females then?...

Interesting about the domestics going wild, and possible breeding occuring too.

[laurencea]

yup, female tufties are dark brown... but so are the males in 'eclipse' and some of the immature males will be not as obviously black and white - confused, you will be... in autumn all ducks look female!

tufties are quite shy ducks, they tend not to venture close in. they are diving ducks too, so when there's feeding they will often dive under, grab food and resurface further out. they also take off by running along the water, unlike mallards which can just go straight up.

a friend was almost hit by a tufty on saturday as he hadn't seen it coming and he was turning around with a big lens on his camera - the duck was about a foor from it as it went by. i almost was hit by one too as i'd crouched down to take a shot as it took off... then stood, forgetting i'd been using a long lens. not sure who had the more startled expression, me or the tufty... i felt the air move as it skimmed over me.

fun with ducks!

[Testudo Man]

Originally Posted by laurencea

yup, female tufties are dark brown... but so are the males in 'eclipse' and some of the immature males will be not as obviously black and white - confused, you will be... in autumn all ducks look female!

tufties are quite shy ducks, they tend not to venture close in. they are diving ducks too, so when there's feeding they will often dive under, grab food and resurface further out. they also take off by running along the water, unlike mallards which can just go straight up.

a friend was almost hit by a tufty on saturday as he hadn't seen it coming and he was turning around with a big lens on his camera - the duck was about a foor from it as it went by. i almost was hit by one too as i'd crouched down to take a shot as it took off... then stood, forgetting i'd been using a long lens. not sure who had the more startled expression, me or the tufty... i felt the air move as it skimmed over me.

fun with ducks!

The tufties were further out than the rest of the other birds...and were not happy about movement from the bank...I guess I was about 30 feet from them...I did manage to get a long distance shot of two others, but this was by accident, because I was after the geese.