A Very Familiar Feeling

Dipping Ring-necked Duck, that is. But before we get to that...

Today I went up to zumerzet [ok, technically it's several different things now, but do I look bovvered?] to have a go at the Blue-winged Teal which has so kindly shown up close enough for me to get at it. A brisk wind working on a general theme of westerly drove through the kind of viciously squally thunder showers that made a seawatcher like me think hard about abandoning this twitching nonsense and heading for the nearest peninsula...

But I maintained my aim and, despite getting thoroughly rained on a couple of times, I got a very nice view of our little yankee friend, plus the 3 drake Garganey she was tarting about with. While there I met [Former Backwater Birder], which was great. We had sort of met before at various birds, but had never had a proper conversation. With the Teal asleep and thunder in the air, I retired to the BK hide to have a bite to eat and see if any terns would appear. They didn't, but the Swifts put on a fair show in their place.

Being in that part of the world, it would have been rude not to stop by the Levels, where I ran into [Famous Somerset Birder] and we were treated to a cracking show from a Bittern that must have hit it's head. It clearly thought it was invisible as it sat out in the open by a channel and caught teeny fish for a good 10 minutes.... :D Earlier, a male Marsh Harrier gave a short but sweet flypast and later, the frelling R-N Duck gave everyone the slip.. Prior to scoring at Cheddar and Roadford, I'd dipped Ring-necks far too often - I'd forgotten how much I dislike those damn duckth....

Even so, it was a good day.