AN AFTERNOON OF BOU LUMPS AT TAIN-HIGHLANDS-SCOTLAND

Finishing work this afternoon, I stopped at Tain just as the tide was ebbing from the estuary. Good numbers of Wigeon, Pintail, Shelduck and Teal were scattered across the mud, and I walked the coastal path checking through the flocks.

Wigeon

Three Pintail were feeding with the Wigeon

The highlight was the long-staying Green-winged Teal, eventually found asleep beneath a tree at the water’s edge.

For comparison of the two species, Green-winged Teal (North America): vertical white bar on the side of the breast, Common Teal (Eurasia/UK): horizontal white bar along the wing.

Once split from Eurasian Teal and treated as a full species by the British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) in 2001, it has since been re-lumped following genetic studies showing significant gene flow between North American and Eurasian populations. It is now considered a subspecies of Common Teal, making this a neat example of taxonomy coming full circle.

The theme continued with a Hooded Crow feeding on the beach alongside several Carrion Crows. 

Under the current BOU treatment, Hooded Crow is lumped with Carrion Crow due to extensive interbreeding where their ranges meet. Birds in this hybrid zone regularly produce fertile offspring, and earlier genetic work failed to show consistent differences beyond plumage, leading to their treatment as a single species.

As the estuary emptied and the wildfowl shifted with the tide, it was a reminder that birding isn’t always about adding species; sometimes it’s about watching the names change while the birds stay the same