otters and ducks

Sitting at the breakfast table this am when I noticed a duck flying around. On raising the bins, I could see it was the female long-tailed duck and that there was an otter in the lake nearby, and this was what was flushing her off. A bit later I dragged the scope out onto the magic patio for a proper look, Now there were two ducks and two otters! One of the ducks was the female long-tailed duck but she'd found a friend - a male tufted duck, which just happened to be a year tick (77) - result!

Exhibit A - ducks!

Another chance for me to practice my amazeballs digiscoping techniques - a lot more practice required!!

birding from the jax

I'm not proud. I'll admit I was totally delighted to get a wigeon on the lake this afternoon (137). Such are the rewards for the dedicated patch worker! After a couple of hours seawatching, hoping for a grey phal but failing (60 sooty shearwaters was pretty good tho), I resorted to scanning the lake for year ticks. Unfortunately it was too windy on the patio, so I had to find a more sheltered spot - the upstairs jax! Perfect!

There was just enough room for the tripod, and by standing on a stool (no pun intended) I could even see most of the hidden corner! Scanning through the gulls, I got on a duck that made me think "wigeon" but before I could confirm that it wasn't one, a real wigeon walked past in the background! Excellent! Less than annual and hard to predict where to find one, this was a huge bonus to the year list! Now only two needed to reach the 100% in the patch challenge, and just 5 short of a new patch year list record - its all to play for!

Ello willow ello

A bit more mig action at Galley this morning in the form of a singing willow warbler at Shite Lane (76), with a handful of chiffchaffs around too. Hopefully get a bit more in tomorrow, as the south-easterly continues.