Tufty

As you can perhaps tell, I'm starting to get a bit desperate in my search for new birds to photograph.  I gave up looking for little passerines today and popped to the nearby reservoir in the hope of some waterfowl.

When I took this shot I thought that I might just be looking at a Scaup, as the two birds are easily confused in their summer plumage.  But a quick look at the field guide confirmed that this is (just) a female tufted duck.  Both birds have those piercing golden eyes, but the tufted duck has a blue-grey bill with a strong black tip, while the female Scaup has a fairly strong white patch about the top of the bill.  The Scaup doesn't have a tuft or crest at the back of the head while the tufted duck has a short crest which is much more obvious in the male (hence the "tufted" aspect of the name).