Ducks

Firstly many thanks for those comments, favourites and stars that got yesterday's gorgeous fox onto the spotlight & rated pages - much appreciated.

And your reward? A fairly mediocre photo of a few ducks. Okay there'll be a few birders who'll appreciate seeing a smew (white duck bottom right side) and then when checking out the other ducks may get a bit more excited. For those of that inclination you'd better visit RCB who blipped Mrs L's digiscoped American Wigeon (left side, second up).

Today we were at Rutland Water to try and see the drake American Wigeon that had been there for around 6 weeks. We arrived just after 11 and were in the hide by 11:30, but no sign of him, various birders came and went, but we watched, drank our flask and ate our sandwiches then at 13:45 I found him, soon the whole hide had him in their scopes. He was fairly distant, but over the next couple of hours came a wee bit closer, but certainly not close enough for a decent photo. So here I am back home having whittled down around 500 shots to around 30 and nothing photographically worthy of blip, but that's not always what blip's about. Today it was about us seeing our first American Wigeon, a bird that generally gets around 10 records every year in Britain, and recording the event - we'll let someone else have the glory of being in the spotlight.

Get a bit closer in Large, then you may be able to pick out Gadwall, Eurasian Wigeon, Tufted Duck and of course Smew & American Wigeon.