Of Birds & Cake the Blog of Paul: Green-winged Teal

At work Wednesday, casually checked Birdguides, Green-winged Teal, Rye Harbour😂😱😰😨😲! Now you may say, so what, yes it's an American Vagrant but not really that rare, not sure what all the fuss is! Well me an Green-winged Teals have history!!! I've dipped em on numerous occasions at first it wasn't that big a deal, one would be reported I would turn up a couple of days later to find it gone, but after about the 6th time I began to take it personal, it doesn't help that they are fairly similar to Eurasian Teal and are usually in areas with hundreds of the aforementioned Eurasian Teals, I hate to think how many Teal I have looked through in search of the elusive Vertical White Stripe, but it's 1000's if not 10sof 1000s !!! most notably on a memorable trip to East Anglia where I dipped three different birds in a weekend! This was pre-blog but I did a report on Birdforum at the link below, be warned it is a tale of woe, full of angst!!

The Search for Green-winged Teal

A true horror story I'm sure you'd agree, I believe a Hollywood Film was proposed, although rumours that Daniel Day-Lewis retired from acting because he couldn't adequately capture the true level of angst, anxiety and distress I went through, were started by me and therefore unlikely to be true!!😀

So Wednesday, I secured a very short-notice day off, lots of crying, puppy eyes, emotional blackmail, actual blackmail worked and the form was signed!! So today I was up at 5.15am and ready to hit the road, Margie had mooted the suggestion that she might accompany me, it was her day off, she has been ill for a couple of days, although feeling slightly better, however the early start and me pointing out that I would be literally staring at the same bit of water from arrival until either the bird showed, I collapsed or darkness fell, put her off a bit and she decided against it!!
I arrived just after sunrise, slightly delayed by a combination of a bloke that thought it was appropriate to drive at 40mph even though the speed limit was 60mph and taking a slight wrong turn at the revamped Polegate junction.

The car park was empty, I was soon kitted up and on me way, the good news was the reported location of the Bird was just along the first road just past the very impressive new Visitor Center. The sunrise was epic a fitting back drop for my first GWT !!!

Sunrise

Visitor Center

I always enjoy Rye Harbour it a superb reserve, one part of it is the noise, today there were Skylarks singing every step of the way and I approached the Oystercatchers took over making a hell of a row, the first pool had 4 Teal on it!! Could it be that easy, no, obviously not, all Eurasian Teal😏 I reached the Red Hut, where the Bird had been performing yesterday, a close group of ten or so Teal were screened, nope I spread the search wider scoping the various pools and Islands without success, the old familiar feeling of inevitable failure began to settle in, there were loads of Birds there, lots of Waders, Golden Plover, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Oystercatchers, Grey Plovers, Avocets, Barwits, Curlew, Redshanks, Snipe etc, lots of Ducks along with the Teal, Wigeon, Pintail, Gadwall etc a fabulous sight and sound all completely ignored in the quest for GWT😂

There are lots of Channels and Islands, so hopefully the Bird was having a kip somewhere in the undergrowth or round the back of an Island, I decided to have a walk down to the river mouth to have a look for the reported Iceland Gull, there were hundreds of Gulls but I eventually found it, very distantly on the beach over in Camber Sands, the tide was miles out!! Nice big flock of Brent Geese went East and there was a Red-breasted Merganser was on a pool further along the beach.

Brent Geese

Very distant Iceland Gull

It didn't look like the Gull was going to come any closer, so I headed back to the hut to resume the search, seemed little change, I scanned around birds were flying about all over especially the large flock of Golden Plover which seemed very flighty, gradually I worked the scope, systematically Island by Island, Channel by Channel, as I scanned a couple of Teal on the spit of a distant Island the first bird shifted position slightly, hang on a minute, what's that a Vertical Stripe? Not as distinctive as I was expecting but definitely a Vertical Strike!! Could it be?? Yep Hooooooooorah!!! 😂 All those trips, all those dips and there it is asleep!!!

Yes I know slightly under-whelming but it's a GWT whoop!!!

So with the main target found and while I waited for it to wake up, I started to take more notice of the supporting cast!

Oystercatcher

Common Redshank

Ringed Plover

Golden Plover with a Med Gull in the background

Oystercatchers displaying

More Golden Plover turning up, this was a fraction of the total

Golden Plover

Dunlin

Eurasian Teal

Golden Plover in the Sun

Looked like the display worked!!

Golden Plover back in the air

meanwhile back on the spit

C'mon you bugger wake up!!

Dunlin

A selection of Gulls, Lesser Black-backed notably!

Oystercatcher

Meanwhile back at the spit.

The beast awakens and he seems to have pulled!!

At this point I was joined by another birder, I was quite surprised there weren't a few more people about. The Teal swam about but remained quite distant, a Marsh Harrier appeared which caused chaos with hundreds of birds in the sky! though the GWT remained stubbornly distant.

The GWT with a Teal in the background

Incoming Golden Plover

Lone Brent

Cruising Marsh Harrier

Panic stricken Pintail

The GWT on the bank!

The GWT buried himself in the vegetation at the back and went to sleep so I had a wander down to the river mouth again, the tide was now coming in and the Iceland Gull was closer and things were looking promising when a dog walker appeared, good views of a Seal as well.

Got to be said I've seen better looking Iceland Gulls but still a quality bird

Seal

So with the bird now more distant, I headed back to the GWT site, anyone spotting a pattern here!!

Dunlin

Oystercatcher

Our American friend has now joined the pack and is trying to impress the ladies

One of our boys giving it ago

Dunlin

Suddenly the female probably fed up with all the posing and posturing took to the air and flew straight towards me, the little darling!

The boys, GWT at the rear chasing the girl!

Much better views now though the Sun has done a disappearing act, typical!

Bit of argy-bargy but the GWT was giving as good, if not better, than he got

A reflective moment

At this point a small Raptor shot past me flushing numerous, Pipits and Skylarks and all the Teal who disappeared over the back of the pool again!! The Raptor had gone past so close and so quick I wasn't sure if it was a Merlin or a Sprawk but I'd seen it drop down in the distance, so I went to investigate the bird had head towards the Sea and I soon spotted it on the rocks, Sparrowhawk!! Denied! What's more it disappeared across the river before I could get a decent shot!

Sparrowhawk crossing the river

As I was back on the beach, I tried again for the Gull, it was even closer, with the tide coming in, it eventually took off and crossed the river towards me before flying off west down the beach, it then turned around flew back and landed on the breakwater 30 feet in front of me, result!! Brace yourself for too many Iceland Gull pics!

Ah yes another couple of flocks of Brents through

Iceland Gull

Curlew fly past

It disappeared behind the breakwater so I headed back to the GWT spot, no sign, a few more Birders present, the guy from earlier found and kindly pointed out a Caspian Gull to me, which was much appreciated!

With the tide coming in big numbers of waders appeared on the scrape

Caspian Gull (at the back third from the right with the white head behind the gull)

I decided to go and have a look for the Spoonbill that has been around all winter. No sign although on the pool it frequents were two Little Egrets and two Great White Egrets which got my hopes up to no avail, plenty of other stuff on the pool and the surrounding ditches, see pictures for details!

Little Egret

Redshank

Great White Egret

Showing why one's called Great and the others called Little!

Sleeping Pintail and Teal

Wigeon

Female Teal

Avocet

Rye Harbour Views

Female Pintail

Male Pintail

Near the two hides that are close together, can never remember the names, the Skylarkfest came to a head, there had been plenty all around but were particularly active here, were a few Meadow pipits and several Reed Buntings here as well!!

Meadow Pipit

Reed Bunting

Skylark

I'm not sure why I bother with the Skylark in flight efforts, it kills me back and the results are pants!! Luckily one of the Skylarks took pity on me and landed on a post and proceeded to do an extraordinary display/dance the like of which I've not seen before!!

Skylark

By now the Sun is back out, temperature rising and I'm chronically over-dressed, I'm also knackered from the early start and carrying Scope, Camera and Bins around 4 miles walked and with dog walkers everywhere, I decided to check out the new visitor center, helping their conservation efforts by eating some cakes, most of my best charity work is done through the medium of cake eating none of these sponsored exercise marathons for me !! A few bits and pieces on the way back!