Birds

This female Scaup was on Swanpool Lake feeding amongst the resident waterfowl, including the similar looking female Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) shown, on floating bread thrown by visitors – a strange diet for a diving duck designed to feed on shellfish and crustacea.

Insight: Less than ten pairs of Scaup (Aythya marila) breed in the UK making it our rarest duck in the summer but numbers increase around the more northern coastline to several thousand in the winter.