The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Can anyone point out any differences between the Lesser Scaup photographed by Russell Hayes at Freiston on 30th March
and the Scaup which I photographed at Kirkby on Bain the following day. I refer to photos which are in the Rare Birds section
of the album. If it is not possible to see clear differences then can anyone say whether both are Scaups or both are Lesser Scaups.

I have very limited knowledge of either species and I can only go on the limited number of guide books I have which show both
species. With my very limited experience, looking at these books leads me to think that the Freiston bird is more like a Scaup than
a Lesser. This only my personal thought and I hope I am wrong because many people have been to Freiston (including myself) to
get a "life tick". I would be interested if any other birders have doubts about the ID of the Freiston bird or are they certain beyond doubt that
the ID is correct.

I am also rather confused by "Birdguides" who have published quite a few Lesser Scaup pictures but refused to publish my shots of
the Scaup at Kirkby on the grounds that it was a "rare breeding bird between March and August". The possibilities of either bird
breeding in the locations where they have been photographed seem extremely remote to say the least!!

Hi Trevor

Generally Lesser Scaup have a purple sheen to their head as opposed to the Greener Sheen on Scaup. The Lesser Scaup is somewhat smaller and the Scaup has a more rounded head. I am sure there are other differences that the experts could go into but from what I have seen I am sure the ID is correct.

Cheers

Russell

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The wing-bars on Greater Scaup & Lesser Scaup are distinctive:-
On Greater Scaup the whole of the wing-bar is white whereas on Lesser Scaup the wing-bar is white on the inner wing but brownish grey on the outer wing.
Your bird at Kirkby pits is a Greater Scaup.

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Regards,

Andy.

Thanks for the comments. I was going on one of my reference books which says useful identification features (for the Lesser Scaup) include its proportionately smaller bill and its peaked, not rounded, head. The pictures I was looking at seemed to show a quite rounded head and a fairly large bill which looked to be more in keeping with a Scaup. It was this that led me to have some doubt, particularly as I could not detect any difference between shots of the bird on the water at Freiston and Kirkby. I don't have any reference books showing the upper wing pattern of the Lesser Scaup and the illustrations I have of the upper wing on a Scaup don't seem to match the photos I took at Kirkby and so I couldn't come to any conclusions on that score.

The features referred to by Andy are well illustrated in the Collins Field Guide

John

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