Green-winged Teal (LBRC)

       Male Green-winged Teal: left, 1CY at Alkborough Flats December 2007 (Graham Catley) and right, Kirkby at Bain gravel pits April 14th 2013 (Russell Hayes).

The first example of this species, formerly regarded as a subspecies of Common Teal Anas crecca, was found at Gibraltar Point on November 11th November 1984. More quickly followed and it has been almost annual since 1996. Including the first record in 1984 there have now been at least 51 records of Green-winged Teal, but it is difficult to know how many individuals have occurred, since a number of records are related to birds occurring elsewhere a short time before, or at the same site, in previous years. All of them have been drakes with no conclusive records of females. There have been 18 records at Alkborough Flats 2006-2019 in every year apart from 2013, with two there in 2008. Another eight records have come from sites along the Humber Bank. How many individuals this involves is purely speculative given that the BTO ringing data shows that the longevity record for Eurasian Teal, A. crecca, is more than 18 years. To illustrate the difficulty of knowing how many have occurred, there have been eighteen records at Alkborough Flats, ranging from single dates to three months, in every year bar two during 2007-2021. How many individuals this involves is purely speculative.

Most birds are found in autumn and over the winter, but there is also a marked spike of arrivals during spring passage,  The earliest in autumn was a drake moulting into full plumage at Alkborough Flats on 18th October 2011, and the latest in spring being one at Deeping Lakes NR on Jun 3rd, 2018. The one record in the summer was a drake at Gibraltar Point on 10th August 1998. Almost half of the Green-winged Teals (and 70% of records) in Lincolnshire have been on the Humber, most notably at Alkborough Flats but others in the Read’s Island and Barton upon Humber areas.  Away from the Humber Bank, there have been seven records at Gibraltar Point and several on inland freshwater bodies.

Finder's report: Green-winged Teal at Gibraltar Point, November 11th, 1984, first county record.

by Andy Sims.

Note:  this account appeared in the Lincolnshire Bird Report for 1984. BBRC noted that this subspecies (as it was then) had averaged about 13 a year over the previous decade, so 1984 was pretty typical.

On the morning of November 11th, 1984, David Jenkins (DJ) and myself visited Gibraltar Point. We first went to the hide on the Mere; we were the only people there and it was quite foggy with visibility about 200m, approximately two thirds of the length of the Mere.

On scanning through a group of Teal near to the bank I immediately noticed a bird which stood out from the rest, a male Green-winged Teal. I pointed this bird out to DJ and we both watched it for a while before this group of Teal started to swim towards the far end of the Mere, soon being lost to sight in the fog. A short while later a mixed flock of Teal and Wigeon flew off in the fog and later when the fog lifted the Green-winged Teal was nowhere to be seen We returned to the Mere several times during the day, but the bird was not seen again by ourselves or other observers.

Description

Size and shape as Teal, which it was accompanying. General plumage as a male Teal but with a very distinct vertical white stripe, having a curved front edge, on the side of the breast below the bend of the closed wing. The white horizontal stripe on the closed wing of Teal was absent. Although not great differences, these two things made the bird very distinctive amongst the rest of the Teal. This is the first record of the Nearctic race* of Teal for Lincolnshire

Note: *Green-winged Teal was officially split by the BOU from Eurasian Teal in 2001.

(Account as per new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021), included September 2022)