A mega among the masses
A careful ID process by Andy Mears revealed a super-rare duck lurking among vast numbers of Somerset Levels wildfowl.
WINTER 2023-24 had been exceptional on the Somerset Levels, with vast numbers of duck including unprecedented numbers of Greater Scaup and Ring-necked Duck. A Garganey was hanging on and Common Goldeneye were also more apparent than usual. The exquisite drake Baikal Teal had returned to Greylake RSPB and, with extensive flooding in many areas, birds were moving around frequently. As is usually the case, Eurasian Teal had piled in during December. I often wonder how far east these birds have come from …
At midday on 6 January, I slipped into Lows Hide at Somerset Wildlife Trust’s
Catcott NR. It was a dry, cold and sunny afternoon, and after weeks of hideously wet weather, scanning the wildfowl was a joy. Decent numbers of Eurasian Wigeon and Eurasian Teal dominated the view. About
90 m away I noticed a brown duck with a small, bright white spot at the bill base. Two things then went through my mind: 1) surely that can’t be a genuine plumage feature, and 2) obviously there’s no way it can be a Baikal Teal. Or can it?!
I tipped off Gary Thoburn, who was also in the hide at that moment, and dashed to the car to fetch my ‘scope. A few minutes later, brief views showed it to look remarkably good for Baikal Teal but it promptly went to sleep, half obscured by wigeon. This wasn’t helpful, but I was lucky to have arrived when I did.
I worked through some features that were still visible and quickly had all these as positive: quite long scapulars with plain dark centres and broad ginger edges, rather reminiscent of a toned-down drake Baikal Teal; a very neat and plain dark crown, also reminiscent of drake Baikal Teal; a dull ginger rear-supercilium; slightly larger than Eurasian Teal, but not obviously so; and a pale line beneath the tail edge, just like Eurasian Teal. Checking the Collins Bird Guide app, these all tallied with female Baikal Teal perfectly. But this was ridiculous – this would be a dream find and I still expected something to go wrong soon.
I’d messaged locally with news of a ‘possible’, and a few minutes later upgraded that to ‘probable’. Sean Davies was quickly on the scene, the bird woke up and started giving great views, and we checked the BirdGuides article on teal ID together. We also had some nice flight views and saw that the wings were perfect. The news then went out properly and it wasn’t long before the hide and car park became rather busy.
It’s worth reflecting on what stood out during the initial views, and also what makes it an adult female. I was amazed at how striking the white face spots were, even at distance. Most of the photos do not do this feature justice. In the field, the spots sometimes even looked like TippEx! As we obtained better and better views, and the bird moved around, I realised that its jizz felt exactly right for Baikal Teal. I’ve seen the species in Japan but only had the chance to study the returning male in Somerset at length and in a relaxed way, but even so, this female felt the same in several subtle ways, such as neck length and head shape. It may well have been this that finally tipped it over from ‘probable’ to ‘definite’ in my mind.
Additionally, the white trailing edge to the wing was broad and the upper flank feathers were large and rounded. This latter feature is diagnostic of adults at this time of the year, being narrower and more pointed on first-winter birds.
Whether or not the bird is of wild origin is up for debate, but given the circumstances, it feels good. Ducks, eh? ■