Cheeky little twitch

After a disappointing high tide spectacular at Snettisham this morning, thick fog made viewing a nightmare, I decided to head out of the county and have a look at the blue-winged teals near Lincoln.
Typically, the fog cleared just outside King's Lynn and it turned out to be a cracking day (burnt forehead as proof!).

Finding the site wasn't a problem but knowing where to park was a bit more tricky. A quick tweet (I love Twitter!!) and parking instructions were received. I was already parking in Morrisons' so it was just around the corner.

Despite being right on the edge of Lincoln, once you had walked through the back of the retail park, the countryside was surprisingly nice and I was soon seeing a few birds along the drainage ditch running up to the site. Buzzard and yellow wagtail over calling, juv hobby hunting dragonflies along the drain and a fly-by kingfisher.



The site itself was a bit of an oasis. A large reed-fringed lake with scrubby willow woodland around the outside with at least 2 singing chiffchaff and a treecreeper.
Just before I arrived, the birds had moved from in front of the hide to the end of the lake but were showing pretty well. This was only my 2nd record of blue-winged teal following a bird at Chew in 1992!

Back to digiscoping so no prize winning shots here but you get the idea...









I was a little surprised how short the primaries looked on at least one of the birds as if it was in wing moult. I wouldn't have expected juvs that had just crossed the Atlantic to be in moult. Or maybe its my poor knowledge...?