Original PaulE
Well-known member
In search of the Green-winged Teal four days in East Anglia
With four days in East Anglia to catch up with family and old friends and do a spot of birding, it seemed fortuitous that there were two Green-winged Teal being reported from the area ,this a Bogie bird for me and have been to many areas where they have been reported and completely failed to find one ,this time would be different ,confidence oozed through my veins. I would be staying with me old mate and birding partner Gary and his wife Sally at Colby’s house, with a plan to hit the reported hot spots when possible. The weather forecast was set fair, what could possibly go wrong!!
Day one
Leaving Sussex at 5am an uneventful drive saw me arrive at Abberton just after first light, drawn here not just by the reported GWT, but also reports of Black-throated Diver, Long-tailed Duck, Bewick Swan, Whitefronts and Scaup, well I saw the Scaup!! None of the others showed mainly due to a lack of research on my part, I missed out the one area where most of them were!! On the bright side I did have cracking views of Smew, Goosander, Goldeneye, Great White Egret and all the usual Wildfowl, large numbers of Tufted Duck and Pochard looked particularly good in the glorious sunlight.
I searched painstakingly through thousands of Teal at extreme distance in the case of Abberton Church where most of the reports had come from to no avail, the problem of course is that Abberton is a huge area with many areas unviewable, which seems to be a recurring problem in GWT searching!! I gave up and headed to Hadleigh a quick cup of coffee with Sally, just long enough to tick the Sparrowhawk she spotted on the shed roof and leave my bag. Headed of to Ipswich to meet up with the youngest offspring, we decided over a Macci’d to visit Bawdsey to see if the Rough-legged Buzzard was still present, Gary has spent 4hrs there the day before without luck, but we rocked up, and due to the kind birder present we were directed to the usual bush, as I put my eye to the scope the bird took flight sailed across the field in a graceful glide before landing out of sight. After this we headed to Shingle Street where we had great views of a couple of Short-earred Owls. Gary had also seen none the day before, to say he was a little disgruntled at our sightings would be the truth 😊 We finished the day with a couple of tasty Burgers at a local Beefeater!! A great days birding in lovely winter sunshine!!
Photos from Abberton at the link below
https://onedrive.live.com/?id=6356FB2BA7828F28!25775&cid=6356FB2BA7828F28
Photos of the Shingle Street Owls found here.
https://onedrive.live.com/?id=6356FB2BA7828F28!25805&cid=6356FB2BA7828F28
So no GWT on day one, three days to go will one be found ?!!!
To Be Continued……….
With four days in East Anglia to catch up with family and old friends and do a spot of birding, it seemed fortuitous that there were two Green-winged Teal being reported from the area ,this a Bogie bird for me and have been to many areas where they have been reported and completely failed to find one ,this time would be different ,confidence oozed through my veins. I would be staying with me old mate and birding partner Gary and his wife Sally at Colby’s house, with a plan to hit the reported hot spots when possible. The weather forecast was set fair, what could possibly go wrong!!
Day one
Leaving Sussex at 5am an uneventful drive saw me arrive at Abberton just after first light, drawn here not just by the reported GWT, but also reports of Black-throated Diver, Long-tailed Duck, Bewick Swan, Whitefronts and Scaup, well I saw the Scaup!! None of the others showed mainly due to a lack of research on my part, I missed out the one area where most of them were!! On the bright side I did have cracking views of Smew, Goosander, Goldeneye, Great White Egret and all the usual Wildfowl, large numbers of Tufted Duck and Pochard looked particularly good in the glorious sunlight.
I searched painstakingly through thousands of Teal at extreme distance in the case of Abberton Church where most of the reports had come from to no avail, the problem of course is that Abberton is a huge area with many areas unviewable, which seems to be a recurring problem in GWT searching!! I gave up and headed to Hadleigh a quick cup of coffee with Sally, just long enough to tick the Sparrowhawk she spotted on the shed roof and leave my bag. Headed of to Ipswich to meet up with the youngest offspring, we decided over a Macci’d to visit Bawdsey to see if the Rough-legged Buzzard was still present, Gary has spent 4hrs there the day before without luck, but we rocked up, and due to the kind birder present we were directed to the usual bush, as I put my eye to the scope the bird took flight sailed across the field in a graceful glide before landing out of sight. After this we headed to Shingle Street where we had great views of a couple of Short-earred Owls. Gary had also seen none the day before, to say he was a little disgruntled at our sightings would be the truth 😊 We finished the day with a couple of tasty Burgers at a local Beefeater!! A great days birding in lovely winter sunshine!!
Photos from Abberton at the link below
https://onedrive.live.com/?id=6356FB2BA7828F28!25775&cid=6356FB2BA7828F28
Photos of the Shingle Street Owls found here.
https://onedrive.live.com/?id=6356FB2BA7828F28!25805&cid=6356FB2BA7828F28
So no GWT on day one, three days to go will one be found ?!!!
To Be Continued……….