While at work I was contemplating whether to go down to Portland in the evening to see if I could catch up with the Golden Oriole that was reported the day before. But news of one turning up near Corfe Castle and with the weather starting to turn for the worst, I decided not to go to Portland as I thought the bird had moved on and it was not wise to travel after work in the pouring rain just for a may be there bird.
On the way home from work it chucked it down and I began to wonder if the weather had grounded any birds at Longham. I arrived at the lakes round about 18.00 hrs and soon found the Bonaparte's Gull on North Lake after take a few pictures and a video of the bird as it is quickly moult in to its summer black hood. I moved on up along the causeway and round South Lake hoping for some new birds but everywhere seemed very quiet and it did not bode well with the Ducks canoeist group just about to go on the water. At this point while on the west side of the lake I noticed to little ducks swim out of the reeds and to my surprise it was a wonderful pair of Garganey and male and female. For those that read my blog and do not know about these wonderful little ducks. They are roughly the (37-41cm) same size Teal perhaps a little bigger. They are a rare summer migrant from sub-Sarharan Africa with less than a hundred or so pairs that arrive to breed. It was very nice to see a pair together as I have only seem males by them selves and a lone female at this little inland wet land site in May expect last year when I either missed them or which I think is most likely one never turned up.
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| Male Garganey |
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| Female Garganey |
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| Grey Wagtail |
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This Garganey now puts me on 95 species seen at the site and what a nice little duck one of my favourite ducks.
Fantastic find Martin. I didn't realise how small the were as well!
ReplyDeleteThanks Darran,they are small ducks males are quite easy to pick when on the Owen females a little harder. Check the BTO video on Garganey ID they do some good videos
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