Ring Necked Duck

This week has seen some horrendous weather with gales and days and days of rain. Today was a rare chance to experience some sunshine so, after doing a couple of things I headed to Whistley Wood for a tramp around there to see what I could find. Sadly it was really really quiet other than a couple of large Tit flocks.

So with nothing outrageous around the county the temptation to catch up with the drake

Ring Necked Duck at Eyebrook Resevoir got the better of me!

I arrived around lunchtime to find the water levels unsurprisingly pretty high. I searched the northern end without success, despite having a good sift through loads of Tufties. I did however see another large group of birds on the far side of the resevoir (eastern side). So I drove back round, parked up and headed down the track down the eastern side. It wasn't long before I came across a nice group of Siskins feeding in some alders.

I soon arrived by the flock of Tufties nice and close in to shore. An initial scan revealed nothing however a second scan unearthed the handsome drake Ring Necked Duck with the sun lighting up the yank beautifully.

After enjoying great views of the bird I headed back, although not before I had a look through a second flock of ducks nearby. Amongst them was the reported 1st-winter female Scaup showing nicely in the fading light.