Another beautiful day. So I headed out to Herrick's Cove again to see whether I'd have more luck today and could locate the Eurasian Teal or Common Teal. There were several birders already there, a couple with scopes, and after some wait our target bird emerged from behind a dead log on a sandbank. Don Clark let me take a view through his telescope which gave a brilliant image of the duck. The bird vanished shortly after behind the log. There were several GW Teals resting in that area - too far for my lens - but one if not two (I can't be sure, sorry for the lousy photos) had ventured into the water:
Left alone after a while I observed a pair of Northern Shovelers emerge into the open water:
Then I saw a small lone duck in a stretch of water to the right of where we had been looking:
What a thrill! I realized it was the Eurasian Common Teal. Shortly after it took to the air:
I followed it with my camera.
It landed some distance away in the reeds and disappeared from sight.
Happy Birding!
glad you saw the teal! Nice to finally meet you and your pups. Hope I see you again. Your pictures are much better than the blurs I got the other day, the only thing you could recognize was the white horizontal line on the eurasian!
ReplyDeleteThanks, JoAnne - I was glad to finally be able to put a face to the name which I had seen so often! I am sure we'll meet again.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on catching up with it and getting some shorts as well. We had a male who showed up every spring for a few years but was never seen the rest of the year. Of course, they can be easily overlooked.
ReplyDeleteWell done!
Ha, congrats!!
ReplyDeleteCool Hilke, that's nice you saw this one too.... Soon over here we will not see anything anymore if the winds change direction... but for the moment the ash are going straight to UK!!
ReplyDeleteChris, I've seeing reports on TV about the eruption. The ash cloud looks terrifying, suffocating. Can anybody, any wildlife survive in it? Glad you are still upwind from it. Hope it's over soon and won't erupt for another couple hundred years.
ReplyDeleteThey are incredible! I wonder if I'll ever get the chance to see (or photograph) such interesting birds?
ReplyDelete@Jochen and @Harold: thanks. They are quiet small and are easily overlooked, particularly in marshy areas or small overgrown ponds.
ReplyDelete@Susan: Thanks. I usually find out about unusual birds in in my local tri-state area by following the birding lists for MA, VT and NH. And once you are in the general vicinity there are other birders to point the way. Good luck!
Wow..How awesome to see that Bird! Great photos too.
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ReplyDeleteTerrific - you got a much better look than I did - I finally saw it through a scope this morning - very distant, but displaying like mad - but plenty of people around to tell me how close it has been at other times!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dawn. Chris, I thought the EC Teal had left when I saw if fly off; so I am glad it's still there, and maybe doing his part to create hybrids.
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