Long-tailed Duck, again

Long-tailed Duck at Deeping High Bank in Lincolnshire

This female/1st winter type Long-tailed Duck was first spotted on the River Welland at Deeping High Bank yesterday morning by local birder Tony Rowe. It was still present today in the fog and murk when myself, Paul Taylor and Mike Weedon paid a visit and showed quite well. This is the first time in around 9 years that a Long-tailed Duck has been seen locally and so was a very welcome life tick, in fact, it was the 219th bird species that I have seen in the area of the Peterborough Bird Club (PBC).

I crave forgiveness, dear reader for the poor quality in the above photos, but I had the ISO settings extremely high in order to get any sort of shutter speed due to the foggy conditions, which explains the amount of 'noise' present.

Common Seal at Deeping St.James, Lincolnshire

This Common Seal has been on a tributary of the River Welland in the village of Deeping St.James in south Lincolnshire for the past week or so. The area in question is part of the old canal that bought trade to the Deepings area in the 18th and 19th centuries, with the seal frequenting the 'Low locks' area. The canal leads to the River Welland, which in turn flows out into the Wash, which is obviously how this mammal has ended up 30 miles form the sea. The RSPCA is aware of the animals presence and says that as long as it remains healthy, it should find its' own way back in due course.

As I say, the seal has been present for about a week and the other day I decided to go and pay homage to something that I hadn't seen locally before. The animal was first spotted when I noticed a rather large bow wave coming towards me, reminiscent of 'Nessie', where it continued to swim nonchalantly past me and continue up stream. It is remarkably 'tame' and showed down to less than 3 metres, coming right up towards the camera and at one point too close to focus on! It is earning celebrity status, having appeared in local and national newspapers and also on the T.V. Time will tell if it manages to return to the sea, but at the moment it looks pretty comfortable in its' adopted home.

Juvenile Shag at Stamford

A fairly common bird on the coast, but pretty scarce inland. This is only the second Shag that I have seen in the PBC area, adding to my year list nicely. The bird had been reported a few days previously on the Lincolnshire Bird Club website, but news only filtered through to me on Wednesday this week, but I need not have feared, as the bird was still present close to the weir at Hudd's Mill on the River Welland in Stamford.

A smaller relation to the more common (inland) Cormorant, which can be told apart from its' larger cousin by its' size and overall shape (it being a lot slimmer), uniformly pale brown plumage and it also has a thinner and more yellow bill.

Winter is here

The year is starting to wind itself up, the evenings are getting darker earlier, there is a distinct nip in the air, the leaves are turning and falling from the trees and the Whooper Swans have started to arrive.

The 'swaniest' of swans has just started to make an appearance on the local patch, not in any great numbers as of yet, but there were 19 of these lovely creatures on the River Welland today.

Just two of the nineteen on show before they all took to the air as one and disappeared into the sunset.