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