Well, another days birding, and another duck twitch it seems. This time though, with the bird being local, its hardly a trek and more like a birding day out. I set off for first light with the American Wigeon thats been around a small lake in the middle of a field in Normanton just north of Wakefield, in my mind.
I was pretty confident I would get it and so it turned out, though the glare was horrific from where I was watching from and I had to move my view several times before I managed to get a really good view of the bird, but thankfully it played ball wonderfully and I got some smashing views of another vagrant duck!
Among the wigeon you could pick out more subtle details in colour and patterning besides the obvious difference with the head colour. It was very happy grazing with the European wigeon, though I happen to think the former look a bit better.
The bird was close, but not as close as I would have liked for my DSLR, so it was back to that digiscoping practice from yesterday that I managed to get some actually quite good record shots of the bird. It was difficult sometimes as the wind was blowing an absolute gale, but I am very happy with what I managed.
-American Wigeon
There were a couple of other bits and pieces too, such as good numbers of Redwings and the usual winter wildfowl. I also took one of the university camcorders with me to see what it could do and managed a bit of footage but the bird was a long way away. Anyway, it gives a different perspective on the bird.
-American Wigeon
I headed back to the station after 2 hours, when I decided to go home on account that the wind was freezing me to bits and I did not fancy taking it on again at a different site. My mind was made up when I got a text from a course-mate saying my lab had been moved from Tuesday to Monday, so I had to get back for that, and quick! I did make it easily though, good thing I had not gone far!
Species List:
Normanton Lake: Redwing, Wren, Robin, Dunnock, Magpie, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Lapwing, Wigeon, Teal, American Wigeon, Gadwall, Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Herring Gull, Black-Headed Gull, Common Gull, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Starling, Chaffinch, Pied Wagtail,
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