Garganey and Wheatear

A nice bright morning got me out of the house and down to St Mary's for a look at the freshly arrived drake garganey.

St Mary's is proving to be a reliable spot for this enigmatic duck, with sightings on the wetland becoming regular over the past few years.

Today's drake was hanging out with gadwall and teal, but was a little distant for photographs loitering on the west side of the pool and on the island - so today's photograph is from April 2007 (when a pair arrived on the wetland).

Annoyingly I did not take opportunity to take a photograph of the water pipit that dropped into the wetland for a few minutes - it's now transforming into cracking fresh plumage.

In the north bay a bright male northern wheatear was flighty, but was a nice spring compliment to the garganey. A walk through the "gut" revealed little else, with a couple of linnet, reed bunting, goldcrest and dunnock being about the lot.