American Arrival

Just a quick post about the American Wigeon which turned up on a small pool on the Leicestershire Wildlife Trust reserve, at Cossington Meadow. The bird was found by Andy Forryan on Thursday 8th September - I have seen one in the County before, several years ago at Eyebrook Reservoir, but it's always nice to see another!  Sunday afternoon was going to be the best day for me to go for it, but my mate Steve James was going for a walk in the morning around the reserve, so I was going to wait on news from Steve - who incidentally bumped into my birding buddy Pete Asher, who was there also hoping to see the bird. It was not good news as there was no sign of it that day, so on Monday, I was really pleased when a message came through on the news service that the bird was still there at mid-day;  I made a quick a call to Pete to see if he wanted to go back for it, and that afternoon we went in search of it on 'Tern Pool' where it had been frequenting mixed in with with a small flock of Eurasian Wigeon. Within a couple of minutes, Pete had it in his new Swarovski Scope (got to put that as he reads my Blog!) The bird is an eclipse drake, and a very nice bird indeed. The light was not brilliant, the bird was distant and they are heavily cropped - what else can I think of? (hehe) - but I managed to get some record shots anyway.  Below are a couple of images of the Yankee Duck

                                                        American Wigeon with Shoveler

American Wigeon

Shoveler and 'the Yank'

Only a short post this time. as always, thanks for stopping by