Tuesday, 22 November 2022

Filby Broad birds

During the morning on Sunday 20th November, I drove over to Filby Broad, from the boardwalk, looking to the left, by c30 Tufted Ducks, a 1st winter male Ring- necked Duck seen in the water in front of some green steps, the black & white banded bill at the tip stood out. At the far back between some islands hosting some Cormorants. Some ducks swimming in the dark water by the reeds and showed reddish mahogany brown plumage and white under the tail just about proving they were 2 Ferruginous Ducks but a long way off! The Ring- necked Duck was seen among a raft of Tufted Ducks just left of a second area of reeds jutting out into the water. A female Scaup-like Tufted Duck, with a nominally thick white band by the bill but quite dark backed seen too. The boardwalk was packed with around 10 birders at one point on there all looking for the rare ducks. One board near me was definitely worn out and I had to warn all those passing by to avoid that particular plank! Nice to see Peter C and Justin L. POSTSCRIPT: I have seen pics of a different bird that is clearly a Scaup, but bird I saw was clearly a Scaup-like female Tuftie!

2 comments:

John Harris said...

Peter, glad you saw the ducks. I’ve seen thema few times but always in poor light and too far away to photograph. John H

Peter Ransome said...

Thanks John, virtually impossible to photograph any birds on Filby as they are nearly always too far away and the light is against you later in the day, especially if its sunny, nice to see them though!