Baikal teal, Crossens marsh

Baikal teal 1 male
Long-tailed duck 1 juv.
Wigeon 5000
Golden plover 500
Little egret 10
Peregrine 1
Merlin 1

At last today I got the opportunity to see the Baikal teal which has been at Banks / Crossens marsh for a week, and what a great bird it was. I think that we must have had better views than most this week, because though I initially started out on the bank at Banks, it soon became obvious that the better views were to be had from Marine drive. Here it was no more than about 75m away, the light was good (quite sunny this morning) and we were sheltered from the wind so the scope could be used on maximum zoom to see the finer details.

It was almost like it was intermediate between a Wigeon and a Teal, in plumage, size and it's feeding action. I didn't see it graze the grass like a Wigeon, but neither did I see it much in open water like a Teal, rather it always seemed to stick to the edge of the water. It had a head and breast which were clearly from the Teal family, yet a body which could easily have belonged to a Wigeon. Despite some initial doubts about it's parentage last week, it seemed to me to be a pure Baikal teal. The only doubts I had on seeing the initial photos were head shape (which appeared too round) and the lack of black line on the face. However, today I could clearly see that the head shape was spot on, with a little bump at the back, and the black line is now starting to appear on the face, presumably as the bird moves towards full breeding plumage later in the winter.

A really stunning bird, in a great location, it's the fifth for Britain.

UK Life 395, Revised Year 254 (Baikal teal)

I'm quite pleased with these digi-scoped photos, taken at about 40x magnification. You can clearly see that the black line on the face is starting to appear, and if anything it was even more obvious on the other cheek.

What are you all doing over there? It's here, right in front of us! Birders watching from Banks.

Wigeon, teal and Baikal teal at Crossens marsh. This photo is taken at 12x magnification without the telescope, and the Baikal teal is almost dead centre, on the edge of the water, facing left. It's more or less in exactly the same position as the digi-scoped photos at 40x (above). What a difference the telescope makes!