Thought I’d post some video of the Summer Leys Garganey. Never a lame duck but not one which stands out to anything like the extent of a fine spring drake and this juvenile has a not particularly well-marked face pattern compared to many.
This is because the dark horizontal cheek bar is reduced to a blob on the ear coverts and the pale loral spot is rather diffuse. It’s a juvenile – as opposed to a female – aged by the neat, fresh feather fringes giving it an immaculate appearance, the finely-streaked neck (adult females are more blotchy here and on the upperparts), the brown, streaky belly – not visible here, but hinted at where the flanks disappear below the water level – (females have a whitish, unmarked belly) and the warm, almost rusty-brown hue to the plumage compared to the colder tones of adults.
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