Teal Ducks

 Teal

Male (l) Female (r) at Blue Bridge

The beautiful coloured Teal ducks can usually be seen around the Blue Bridge in winter. They are notoriously shy most of the time and will swim off to the very centre of the lake or perhaps seek cover in the reeds if they sense humans nearby. 

The Teal we see at Corkagh come from Scandinavia to overwinter here as our ponds and lakes rarely freeze over for long.  

The male has a chestnut coloured head with a very distinctive metallic green band.  The female, on the other hand, is a mottled brown and could easily be mistaken for a female Mallard.  However both male and female have a bright green wing patch which is most obvious in flight.

The Teal feeds on the seeds of Rushes and Sedges at the edges of the lake but if seeds are not available they will eat insects that live beneath the lake surface.  While the Teal cannot dive (they are called dabbling ducks) it can turn itself upside down to skim food from the shallow lakes they prefer. They are also known to travel up to 30k from water to feed on agricultural grains and seeds. 

Teals are a protected species in Ireland and across much of Europe as populations are on the decline.

Male is on the right.  Its October, they have just reached Ireland and are feeding up at Corkagh.  The male has his chestnut head but the green band is not yet fully vivid after his autumn moult.

When they arrive here in October the males will have just finished their Autumn moult so their colours aren't quite as vibrant yet. The image above was taken in October and they were not as shy as usual so it is likely that they were busy feeding and resting up before completing their journey to one of the large inland lakes.