23: In poor light these guys are hard to tell apart. Even in...

In poor light these guys are hard to tell apart. Even in good light it's tricky.

[Stephen and I saw a raft of these today; he thought it would make a nice picture
but I said the light was not nearly good enough. This is from March 2010.]

The green-headed guy is a Common Goldeneye, the blue-headed guys are Barrow's Goldeneyes.

The rest are either females or immatures and pretty hard to ID.

[For MickPt: ISO 100, f/8, 1/320 seconds, 280mm for a 35mm equivalent of 448mm]

2 comments so far...

Sonja December 07, 2016, 10:17 AM

Great shot! What a cute mixed bunch, one can see the differences in the b/w patterns of the drakes so well! Goldeneyes usually are so shy and keep their distance from the shore, especially if a human stands about anywhere there.....

mramshaw December 07, 2016, 05:26 PM

Thanks for the comment Sonja, you are absolutely right - they are shy!

I was just pleased to have a picture with both local types in it.

They are often close to shore in bad weather but then the light is bad.

They are perhaps slightly mis-named, only the males have gold eyes.