Garganey in the hand!

Today I got the very rare opportunity to take a look at a Garganey that was trapped and ringed at Wheldrake Ings NNR this evening.  Some pictures below. Also a Teal was trapped too.  Great to be able to compare head patterns.  Both birds were colour-ringed as par of the really interesting ongoing project in the valley. Garganey yellow on left and right, Teal orange on left and right. Expect some more details/better pictures on the LDV blog soon. Pics below are off phone cameras so not the best, but at least you can tell what it is!

 Garganey (Russell Slack)

Garganey (Andy Walker) 

Garganey (Andy Walker) 

 Garganey (Andy Walker) - check out the giant tertials!

Garganey (Russell Slack) 

Garganey and Teal (Russell Slack) - surprisingly subtle head patterning in eclipse

Garganey (Andy Walker)

Nice views of a Garganey

Found a really nice Garganey over the Bank Holiday weekend which showed really well for a change! Got the following pictures on my phone so they're not the best quality, but they give an idea.  Was really nice to be able to take a detailed look at this species which is easily my favourite duck.

Drake Garganey having a preen (phone-scoped) 

Drake Garganey looking proud! (phone-scoped) 

Drake Garganey off for a swim (phone-scoped) 

Drake Garganey (phone-scoped) 

Drake Garganey (phone-scoped)

Had a drive around the York Area to see if I could find anything else, big numbers of Common Whitethroat were in all over the place and there was plenty of Yellow Wagtail too. A poo pile that I came across had 3 Yellow Wagtail and 4 Wheatear. Only managed the one picture of each though. Interestingly 2 of the Wheatear looked like our 'normal' Wheatear (these look like the same birds I had last week at the same location) and the other 2 Wheatear looked good for 'Greenlands'. 

Male Wheatear (phone-scoped) 

Male Yellow Wagtail (phone-scoped)

Had a great flyby of a female Sparrowhawk, flew straight towards me at eye level along a track!

Had an evening trip to North Duffield Carrs but it was fairly quiet, only waders of interest were 2 Black-tailed Godwits.