Greater Scaup: Staying within Greater Manchester today combined with a short trip to the office and I thought I would check out the local scaup.This was my second visit Elton to see this drake scaup and I was surprised to see how much it had undergone a transformation as it leaves its eclipse plumage to its adult plumage.
The bird had also moved into a more sheltered inlet area on the west side of the lake. There was high congregation of water birds here with several tufted duck, kingfisher, teal, mute swan and two little egret.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the same bird, the top image was taken on the 15th of October and the bottom image today.
The bird has changed from it's mottled brown head to almost full adult plumage with no white blaze around the face.
