I actually think I first saw these almost a month ago... but I couldn't figure out what they were. They were quite a way out into the river and, at that time, I wasn't carrying good binoculars. At first I thought they might be Goldeneyes... but then noted there was a lack of the white dot on the males face and their backs didn't look quite so dark... and it looked as if the bill was a lighter colour!?
It wasn't until May when I had a good pair of binoculars with me and saw them again and could make out the light patch on the female around the bill that I was pretty certain what I was looking at were Scaups.
Though I was carrying better binoculars, the camera is still crap and this is about as good as it gets....
Lesser Scaup in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon Sketchbook.
I think I've heard of scaups, but wouldn't have been able to identify them.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of them until I was looking through books trying to figure out what they heck I was looking at!?
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