There Were Ducks

Winter birding often involves ducks. They are one of the few birds largely unaffected by weather - find water, find ducks.

Being of not quite sound body on my little sojourn off work, I decided not to be too nutty getting out there and so, yes, ducks were likely to feature.

There were and still as I type are, a few nice ducks knocking about the SW, and as I had history with several of them* I thought there might be an opportunity for some revenge. Getting good views and even decent pictures of birds I'd repeatedly dipped and at most got distant blob shots of seemed like perfectly reasonable excuses to me for going out and having some fun sat in hides out of the weather. :)

And I find a winter incomplete without a trip up on to the Levels.



First up, closest and best yet in Devon, was a certain Ring-necked Duck [worthy of no more than RND from hereon] at Beesands. Not been there for a while, either, and there were pictures of it at close range ::rubs hands::

The forecast was not promising, but the ley should be sheltered and rain keeps the grockles off, right?

I took the scenic route out on the off chance of low-flying Bittern over Slapton - no dice - and arrived to find a scene of near, far, and hiding Tufties and.. oh, there he is. Hiding behind the outer island

Yup, very close

Tufties

Pochard

Shoveler

"This is definitely my best side"

Now the autofocus works through cover.....

"Come on, mate. Show a little feather.."

"Aww, gee, alright, I guess..."

"So he's going to show a bit better?"

"I'm coming, I'm coming"

"How's this?"

Yeah, whatever.

The sea was, well, there. I found a GND off towards Start but little else aside from the inevitable Gannets.

Spot the GND

I toddled up to Slapton in search of what I could find. Which turned out to be not that much. Of note, there were quite a few Goldeneye - eventually I found seven [3 and 4] - but they were off around the majority of the waterfowl, who were in a mass up opposite Scaup Point;

Looking north from Stokeley blind

Oh, there they are..

[Note the male Goldeneye]

Up close and personal, much to my delight were

Little Grebe in the reeds

Four!

And because it is required;

Bathing beauties

Pink flowers!

The forecast rain arrived only in drizzle form, but the wind was fairly brisk and moderately toothy. No Bitterns or Marsh Harriers [let alone Otters] on view, but I wasn't worried. Guess what the next day held?

Wonder where this was taken..?

Be Seeing You..






[[*See past posts for the vexations of Ring-necked Ducks especially..]]