Ring-necked Duck #22

We had planned to go out for a quick hour this afternoon to see if we could ID some of the rarer gulls on the River Mersey that have been seen. However, when a report of a very smart ring necked duck came through this morning in St Helens only 15 minutes away, we could not pass up the chance of an opportunity to see it. We had very distant views of a female RND at Leighton Moss last month, but this one was only about 20m away on the lake and very handsome. It gets its name from its dark purple neck band, but this is hardly noticeable in the field and certainly not on such a dull grey day. They are vagrants from North America, so not common over here at all - a great bird to see and photograph.

We did pop over to Spike Island afterwards for a look at the gulls, but it was so windy on the West side of the bridge that we could hardly hold our binoculars steady. Needless to say we didn't find anything out of the ordinary. A scope is really needed, and MUCH better light.