Watch-out - Blipper About (Pochard)

Yesterday, I saw what I thought might have been a scaup. My bird book describes it as 'black at both ends and white in the middle' and that is certainly how it appeared in the fading light.

I was suspicious because scaup are marine ducks so it would have been unusual for it to have been on fresh water.

I therefore went back this morning and sure enough, a similar bird was in the same area of the loch. The weather was still dull so I had to use a high ISO. Unfortunately, it was also a fair distance away necessitating full zoom + digital zoom + a crop of the final image so apologies for the poor quality. The local sailing club then launched their safety boat and any chance of a closer blip evaporated in an instant.

I can now definitely say that the bird in question is a MALE POCHARD (Aythya ferina).
This is the first time that I have knowingly seen a pochard so as you see, I am still learning new IDs. I also learned that the sailing club use the loch every Sunday. There were also lots of dogs around yesterday (Saturday), so in future I shall try to restrict my visits to a weekday.