Garganey at Reculver

Its that exciting time of year again when the migrant birds start to arrive on our shores and with the light mornings and evenings starting to develop, hopefully plenty of time to get out birding. I haven't been out birding much lately but a tweet today from Matt Hindle who had just found a male Garganey in Coldharbour lagoon soon had the birding bug kicking in. A message to Matt unfortunately brought negative news as it seemed to have flown off but a message later again in the day proved more positive as it had returned to the lagoon. With the sun shining, I made the drive over to Chambers Wall where after parking up, I walked on down to the lagoon. On the way I noted c30 Corn Bunting, 2 Lapwing displaying and on arrival at Coldharbour, I initially couldn't find the Garganey. There were a few Mallard on the water and a few Redshank could be heard but after a  change of position, I soon found the male Garganey asleep with a few Mallards. I have only ever seen 1 Garganey before at Reculver in 2012 and that was a brief encounter so it was nice to be able to study and take a few photographs in good light. I was joined by Derek Smith and we spent some time sitting on the seawall chatting and enjoying, what is probably, one of our best looking ducks. Its a rare bird to see at Reculver so a bonus to see and what will hopefully be a good omen for things to come. With the birding bug back, I think I will have an early morning visit out in the morning to see whats about before the predicted rain arrives.

 Drake Garganey