291/366 Back for the winter

17 Saturday Oct 2020

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff Bay birds, eclipse male Goosander, Goosander

It was wonderful yesterday to see that Goosanders are now returning to Cardiff Bay after their breeding season. I’m not exactly sure where these birds would have spent their busy summer months as, according to recent copies of the Eastern Glamorgan Bird Report, they haven’t been recorded breeding locally for many years.

201017 goosander (1)

Goosanders can often be seen in the Bay over the winter and, yesterday, three birds were fishing in the River Ely where it flows in to Cardiff Bay.

201017 goosander (2)

There were two females and this handsome bird, which I think is a male in eclipse plumage, i.e. transitioning from summer to winter colours. I took a little video of it preening, if you want to take a look.

(Apologies for the spot in the video – it’s inside my camera, rather than on the lens, but I haven’t been able to take my camera to be cleaned because of our lockdown restrictions.)

294/365 A confusing Goosander

21 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, eclipse male Goosander, Goosander, juvenile Goosander, plumage change in Goosander

There were actually 5 Goosanders on the River Ely this morning. Four stayed their distance but this one, paddling alone, came over to investigate me.

191021 Goosander (1)

I’ve been trying to work it out. I don’t think it’s a female – though they have reddish-brown heads, they’re more generally grey in the body, without so much black on their backs.

191021 Goosander (2)

And it seems that in juvenile Goosanders the separation between the white throat and chin and the brown head is less clear cut, more ragged – in this bird it seems well defined.

191021 Goosander (3)

So that leaves me with a male bird in eclipse plumage, i.e. still undergoing the change from its breeding plumage (of black-dark green head and upper neck) to its winter plumage, though that would usually be complete by now, I think.

191021 Goosander (4)