Saturday, December 26, 2009

Boxing Day Goodies at EGP

Male Scaup on the water this morning was a lovely surprise



A pair of Gadwall were resting on the ice



And an escaped male Chestnut Teal which is native to Australia was probably the biggest surprise of all, although this is the third time I have seen a male of this species somewhere along the Calder Valley in the last couple of years, this however is my first sighting of one in the Halifax BW area



Other species counted were:

58 Canada Goose
1 male Pochard
51 Tufted Duck
2 Goldeneye (1 male & 1 juvenile)
1 female Goosander
2 Little Grebe
6 Great Crested Grebe
1 Cormorant
8 Lapwing

3 comments:

Jeff Cox said...

All in all sounds like a good morning for you David. Scaup is a bird I haven't managed to see in Calderdale yet, and given the lack of comment I guess this isn't your first sighting here. Good pic of the Gadwall, very clear.

David Tattersley said...

Hello Jeff

Actually it is my fist sighting of Scaup at EGP, I have seen this species at Ringstone & Scammonden (both females incidentally)in the area previously.

I did in fact put the news out by text around 12:30 of all the notable birds seen there but whether or not it was put on the grapevine I'm not too sure.

Unless the lake freezes over completely tonight I would have thought there is a reasonable chance of the Scaup still being present tomorrow as it was diving and feeding well.

All the best

David

David Sutcliffe said...

Another good and interesting haul there Dave. Yes I did get the text out, but I was a bit late with it! My phone had been on silent. Apologies.