Garganey? South East UK - September (1 Viewer)

[xaviertaylor]

Hi all - Apologies for what might be a daft question here!!! I'm going through photos that are a few week old. Had some very distant views of what I thought to be a couple of Garganey, but they were hanging around a load of mallards in similar looking plumage, some of which were also sporting a rather distinct eyestripe. So would you mind taking a look to see if I did in fact also see a Garganey? Thanks for any input you can offer

 

[Steve Lister]

Just Mallard I'm afraid. They can show head patterns very much like Garganey but the size and other features such as bill colour and tail pattern should always put you right.

Steve

 

[xaviertaylor]

Just Mallard I'm afraid. They can show head patterns very much like Garganey but the size and other features such as bill colour and tail pattern should always put you right.

Steve

Thanks for your reply - in my heart of hearts I knew this would be the case but I'd heard there were Garganey in the area and it kept plaguing me!!!

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Garganey is a small duck like teal , so these could never have been that species .
But occasionally some mallards have a slightly garganey-like head pattern , and that is what you have here ...

additionally also some other mallards, teal , gadwall and shoveler