Another rare anatini !!!!!!

vocab- anatini- dabbling duck

and back to the patch
14/02/10
my dad decided to join me for the second half of my patch trip today, so i was off to blackstone on my own, the buzzards were perched in the hedgeline again, giving great scope views.

the marsh tit didnt take too much finding, following me up 40m of path to the feeders, here i left the bird alone, the wigeon hadent lingered(as was expected), 4 skylark were singing in the riverside fields, and this beauty kept me company on the river:

female goosander

the stock doves were again on their perch in the vismig field and a bullfinch was with the chaffinch flock,

i stopped off to have a drink and pick up my dad and then we continued to the redpoll lake, hopeing for redpoll, and guess what, there wasent any redpoll, oh well.

we carried on around the small reed fringed pool and a duck swan out from the reeds 3 metres from us, fully expecting it to be a mallard, i raised my bins, and there sticking out like a sore thum was a black arse,

'GADWALL'

DRAKE GADWALL ON THE PATCH

it swam into a channel leading to the main area of lake and we rushed over there, and this is what greeted us.

a full adult drake GADWALL, swimming and feeding blisfully, OMG, the second mega duck in 2 weeks, the bird was extremly relaxed in its setting and didnt showb any signs of being uncomfortable, it wasent even bothered by 5 noisy kids playing 10 m away on the park, after about 15 mins the bird swam back onto the small area and we decided to leave it to itself.

we lesurly walked all the way downriver to an area that looks over larford lakes, i had a quick scan, but nothing materialised, 3 stock doves were singing and nuthatches were calling, so with little else about we headed back up to the gadwall. and it was still there showing well about 3m away, though swimming away from us. we first located the bird at 12:30 and presuambly stayed for the rest of the day, and hopefully may stay for some time as the bird is relaxed

MB