Friday, March 11, 2011

Hunting for that Teal!

I was off today (although colleagues and users have berated me for reading and replying to my email!).

The sun was shining and I hopped out of bed and went birding. That flipping Green Winged teal was still about so I went to Connaught Water.

A few birds were waiting for me by the car park!


I soon ran into the chap from last week who again was admitting defeat - not promising I walked around the lake and met 3 others who hadn't seen it... not promising on my second circuit one of the guys was on the other side and waived at me AH !!! Annoyingly by the time I got there it had decided to go deep under cover and after another half hour I thought stuff this I'll go and have a hot drink.

Still a few photos












After said drink I went to Rye Meads lots of the usual suspects about but alas no migrants. Lots of Cettis Warblers calling and a Green Sandpiper.

I do love the way the sun catches the green on a Mallard's head.




First insect photo of the year


I had posted on facebook via twitter that I had dipped the Green Winged Teal and over lunch I spotted my colleagues negative comment. Now the day was still young and back I headed to Connaught Water.

Around the lake no sign !! OH FOR GOODNESS SAKE

Have a tufty



One last walk, some teal on that distant island.... eurasian, eurasian.... a bird then stands up and walks five feet and sits down BUT it has the vertical stripe!

Of course PROPER twitchers just see the damn thing, me? I struggle, still did see it!

Nice day really, tomorrow I'm taking dad out for a ride.

4 comments:

Eagleseagles said...

I think its got harder to see as more and more birders have been to see it! It gave itself up for me very quickly.That was on Monday!
Still you got your reward!
Nice day for birding.

oldcrow61 said...

Beautiful birds. Great shots Pete.

holdingmoments said...

Well done on seeing it finally Pete.

Tricia Ryder said...

Glad you got it - worth going back for!

Love the Gadwall pic.. it's really sharp and shows the feather markings really well. Nice one!

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