When I was down yesterday scanning in front of the hide not only was there the now familar 7 Scaup but in my same scope field of view a vertical stripe jumped out on the green-winged teal. Not bad in one scope view at all. Other highlights incuded the gadwall, pochard, goldeneye and Red-breasted mergansers. After a few weeks of not seeing any great-creasted grebes on the reserve today I had four, two being by the duck feeding platform. The usual waders - redshank, Oystercatchers and lapwing.
For those of you who read thi Ts and think a green-winged what? The picture below shows you the subtle difference there is between a Eurasion Teal and a Green-Winged Teal. The vertical white stripe is a charactersitic of the Green-winged. It can be quite a feat to pick this out from flocks of thousands of Eurasion Teals but you do get a sense of triumph when you eventual do. If anyone manages to get a good picture of both teal together for a comaprison please post it to the gallery.
Robert Bowers posted a great photo to the gallery (link below)
http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/hodbarrow/m/hodbarrow-mediagallery/623901.aspx
Finally there have been several people stopping me to tell me about the seals at whiterock. There seems to be two who are enjoying moving between there and the sand banks in the estuary. I've seen them a few times.
Cheers
Mhairi