LESSER SCAUP on Orkney

A female LESSER SCAUP is on Orkney at Ayre Loch, St Mary's at Holm.

I found the bird on 28th November, when I first suspected it was a Lesser Scaup. It has taken five days and numerous visits to confirm it since then. During that time I have picked out all the salient points, including the diagnostic wing-bars (I saw the bird on two occasions fly low around the loch with a female Tufted - a huge stroke of luck and very useful for comparison).

It was aged/sexed as a first-year female on a combination of characters including bare-part colouration and plumage.

Tips for anyone not familiar with the species:-Slightly smaller than Tufted; more uniform paler brown; no crest - not even a small one; bill, dull grey throughout with darker nail; white at bill-base confined to a neat oval patch at each side; high dome-shaped crown gives the bird a quaint appearance and is the most distinctive feature of the bird on the water; the 'clinching' feature is the 'two-toned' wing bar (white on secondaries contrasting abruptly with smoky brown on the primaries - difficult to see unless the bird flies or 'wing-flaps')

Keith Hague