Win Some, Lose Some

The winning all took place this morning...

A wild and windy night meant only one thing: a pre-breakfast seawatch. En route to the seafront I noticed the river level was right down, with mud showing, and resolved to have a look later...

The seawatch was okay. I gave it an hour and ten minutes. Two Arctic Skuas W together at 06:55 was the highlight, but 11 Med Gulls, 14 Sandwich Terns, a Manx, 2 Kitts and 3 Dunlin made for a nice mixed bag. Sadly it wasn't so lively that I couldn't count Gannets*.

Right then, before I head for home...

At around 07:45 I pulled up by the river, pretty confident that I would have the kettle on in ten minutes or less.

No waders of course, but a small gang of Mallards to check through. Since I started birding West Bay regularly last autumn, those Mallards have pulled in some quality bonus ducks. Pintail is probably the best, but also a Shoveler, plus the odd Wigeon and Teal. This morning I spied a distant small duck among their number. 'Ooh, nice', I thought, 'A Teal.' It was too far away to see any detail with bins, so I dug out the scope. No chance it will be anything but a Teal of course, but nothing ventured...

A big white loral spot and a stripy face. Flip! The Teal is a Garganey!

My fumbling dash for the camera must have been quite amusing to watch.

Garganey (left) with two Mallards.

Despite the shady gloom beneath the front of Rise restaurant, that contrasty face pattern is pretty striking.

I called this as a juvenile bird, but I wonder now if the white trailing edge of the secondaries is a bit too strong. Perhaps it's an adult female?

In profile, that is quite a hooter!

I never got a decent look at the wing pattern, but a couple of shots from a brief, front-on wing-flap might also suggest adult female rather than juv...

Is that belly too extensively pale for a juv?

And does that glimpse of upperwing look a bit too grey?

Ah, well. Whatever its age, it's a Garganey, and my best find for yonks. I was especially delighted to hear later that it hung around long enough to entertain Bridport birders Pete Forrest and Tom Brereton also.

So, that was the winning. And now time has run away with me, so the losing I shall save for another post...

*91