Long-tailed Duck

Long tailed duck (female) at Frieston Feburary 2003 © Steve Botham 2003

Long tailed duck (female) at Frieston 13th Feburary 2003 © Robert Littlewood 2003

Long-tailed Ducks by Mike Tarrant.

The Long-tailed Duck has never been more than a scarce species in Lincolnshire and in recent years its status in the county appears to have declined with fewer sightings in winter now than in former years. Although essentially a sea-duck, our best opportunity to see the species in Lincolnshire is when birds are driven on to inland waters by winter storms, and I can remember one year seeing at least eight together at Covenham Reservoir.
One thing that has intrigued me over the years is why we see so few adult males in the county. After the breeding season, and the species nests as far south as southern Finland although it is mainly an Arctic breeder on tundra pools, the sexes split up, with the males forming flocks and tending to stay closer to their breeding-areas than females and juveniles which tend to venture farther afield. This probably explains why adult males are a rarity here. The only one I have seen in the county is this adult winter male that I photographed at Huttoft in December-1992.
Another Long-tailed Duck, shown in the second photograph, which I took at Skidbrooke in May-1989 shows a bird that might be a male beginning its moult into adult breeding plumage. It is beginning to show much brown on the head except for a large white eliptical eye-patch thus ghosting the head-pattern of an adult breeding male. However, caution must be exercised in ageing and sexing any plumage other than adult males because the moult sequences of Long-tailed Ducks are complex. Adults undergo three moults in one year and thus show four different plumage stages in one year.
With continuing warmer winters, maybe as a consequence of global warming, it may be that their wintering areas will creep ever farther northward. Shall we then see even fewer adult males in the county in the future? What a pity that will be !

Photo No. 2 Long-tailed Duck, Skidbrooke, May-1989. © Mike Tarrant.

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