Yankee teal

There's been good numbers of teal at Druridge since I got back from Taiwan and I've been scanning through them for green-winged teal.

I was working at home on Tuesday when a message came through to say that Andy McLevy had found a green-winger on the Budge fields - A lunchtime twitch was in order and I saw the bird.

It was still there today, making it onto my WeBS list - but we only saw it briefly from the south facing hide and too far for photos and then it disappeared into the flock of 406 regular Eurasian teals.

As well as a good teal count there were over 260 wigeon, 130 curlew and 15 grey heron and a single black-tailed godwit. A pair of oystercatchers were new for the year.

Green-winged teal occur, on average evry three years or so at Druridge. Some of them stay for a long time whlist others are day-birds and they're off. At the minute, the American  green-winged teal Anas carolinensis is considered as seperate species to 'our' teal by the IOC but not by eBird who mainly follow Clements taxonomy. So it could easily get 'lumped' again...

In the meantime it's on my list

This will probably be the highest duck count of the year as numbers will start to decrease soon as birds begin to head north.

Green-winger to start the year

Another year on the patch begineth.....

I tried to start my year-list yesterday but a heavy sleet shower had me heading for home and hot soup, I am still not re-acclimatized from Costa Rica.

I headed back out today and visited the far flung corners of the patch, hoping to turn up some winter goodies. I managed 24 species yesterday, the highlight was a fly-by turnstone - a tricky bird at Druridge. I was keen to add to my total.

I headed north into the dunes, finding grey partridge and reed buntings and then a mixed flock of 300 or more goldfinches and greenfinches, with a single linnet amongst them. Three whooper swans flew south over my head as set off off along the haul road. More reed buntings were found along the track, but their cousin the yellowhammer was nowhere to be seen.

Male reed bunting in the dunes

female-type reed bunting along the track

At the Preceptory, a pair of kestrel were hanging about with the jackdaws.

Chibburn Preceptory - always worth checking

Headed towards the farm, a stock dove flew over, which I was pleased about as these can be very tricky too. I then got a tweet from Jonathan Farooqi telling me there was a green-winged teal on the Budge fields. A good bird which I was glad to hear about, but I won't get the three 'finders points' on the PWC.

A fly-over great-spotted woodpecker was a bonus over the cottages on my way to the Budge screen. When I got there the Yankee teal was asleep in the grass.

green-winged teal in the centre of the shot

A couple of bird-race teams popped by to see it whilst I was there, they were cagey about their scores, understandably. I was a bit envious of them, I used to really enjoy the winter bird race, but it clashes so often with the Toon playing, that I can't commit and therefore don't have a team (although after today's performance, I should maybe rethink my priorities).

No sign of New Years Eve's pintails sadly.

I had a look on the sea but it was quiet, with only red-throated divers of note.

So I started the year with a respectable 51 species and my first scarcity in green-winged teal.

Yank Teal

I finally managed to see the green-winged teal today, it turned up at Druridge whilst I was in Sri Lanka but I've missed it on two visits.

It was on the Budge fields, spending its time alone, away from the other teal. This is the first Druridge record since 2011, another long-staying drake.

iPhone-scoped drake green winged teal

The Budge fields are still holding decent numbers of wildfowl, including about 20 shoveler, a single pintail and a shelduck. Shelduck are normally a February addition to the list, so this one is quite early. There were also two black-tailed godwits.

The female type common scoter was back/still on the big pool, but little else of note.

I had a half-hour look on the sea. There are still lots of red-throated divers and an unusually high count of over 50 guillemots. I'm not sure why there are so many guillemots in the Bay this winter. Amongst the guillies and divers there was a red-necked grebe, great-crested grebe and a first-winter drake velvet scoter (which was on its own, well away from the main scoter flock). There were a couple of kittiwakes feeding offshore.

63 shelduck
64 green-winged teal
65 moorhen
66 greylag goose
67 velvet scoter
68 great crested grebe
69 kittiwake

PWC Score 85 Points

That's dedication!

Despite having only been back in the country for less than three hours, despite having been travelling for over 30 hours with virtually no sleep and despite the sleet, icy winds and a temperature of only 3 degrees centigrade I still went down to the patch this afternoon to look for a reported green-winged teal. How's that for dedication?

The Yankee teal wasn't at Druridge, seemingly it was on Chevington's south pool.

The cold conditions of Druridge came as a bit of a shock having just spent the last two weeks on a birding trip to Sri Lanka, with an average daytime of temperature of around 30 degrees.

Singing Indian pitta in Kitugula Forest

We had an excellent trip, seeing all of the 33 endemic species of bird and most of the sought-after near endemics as well as good selection of mammals including several Asian leopard.

I've got the long dark nights of February to play around with photos and I will, eventually, post a full report and photos on my birding trips blog.

In the meantime, I'll be checking the Budge fields for the green-winged teal. No new species were seen today, but the drake pintail were showing well in front of the hide. My camera was still packed.....

A Yank! But not the one I wanted.

There was a Yank on Druridge Pools this afternoon, not quite the one I wanted though. It looks as though the greater yellowlegs has moved north (why?) so no chance of it now. So I had to make do with a green-winged teal. 

A good year-tick and WeBS bird though and my first at the Pools since 2008. It must be the same drake that has been hanging around at East Chevington for the last month or so. It was asleep on the far bank for most of the time I was there, so I only managed this very-poor record shot.

Can you spot him? green-winged teal

This Eurasian teal was a bit easier to photograph.

Eurasian teal

If only this had been a yellowlegs.

Redshank

As I wandered up to the pools, I got onto a chiffchaff making its way along the bund. It wasn't a greyish bird as I might of expected and hoped for, it was very yellow-green-olive with quite pale legs. It flew off before I managed a better picture than this.

December Chiffchaff

There wasn't much else of note today. A few long-tailed tits moved through the bushes with lesser redpolls and other finches for company. Offshore, there were a few red-throated divers, shags and mergansers.

160 green-winged teal