Just the weather for ducks - and Green Winged Teal.

It was another grey cold morning so I was dismissed(-:) Even though rain was promised I went out and drove up to Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve as the only other time I was there, it was covered with 2 inches of snow and there was next to nothing on the pools as they were frozen, but I managed some beautiful Goldcrest shots.

Got there and it was still not raining, though it looked like it had been so off I went. Along toi the first hide(Kingfisher Hide) but nothing doing there, Kingfishers obviously away(-:). As promised it started to drizzle so I moved on to the second hide overlooking a different pool. There was a Heron fishing.

There were also some Teal dabbling about and I was informed by one of the others in the hide that there was Green Winged Teal present. This is the only picture that I could get where the difference between the Eurasian teal on the Left and the Green Winged Teal on the right are readily apparent - unfortunately I couldn't get one with both there heads up, but that's not really relevant.

There were also a pair of Gadwall on the same pool.

As you can tell from the Gadwall picture, the drizzle had intensified to some quite heavy rain. I waited a while but it didn't let up so I set off for the next hide. From this hide there was a large collection of Black Headed Gulls visible .A Cormorant flew in

Obviously for some goalkeeper training.

A pair of Shoveler enjoying the rain.

A quick trip to the next hide provided a pair of Tufted Duck doing the same. I even saw a Kingfisher, but by the time I noticed it, it was off so I don't know whether it was a male or female. They obviously use the area as there were clearly several Kingfisher perches in close proximity to the hide. I waited around for a while but it didn't reappear.

Last but not least, a Moorhen also enjoying the wet!

These birds weren't bothered by the weather but it didn't let up so I called it a day.  Still there were two successes - one was my first Green Winged Teal and the second was that I eventually got to wear my waterproof poncho, which did exactly what it said on the tin - went on very easily, covered all my gear including backpack with tripod whilst allowing easy access to the camer and bins when necessary.

Cheers,

Bob