Now that's no Tufted Duck!

Hi readers, yes its been a while since we had a successful twitch, in fact there has been little for us to go for in current times at least in the distance we can travel. But late last week something turned up in Shropshire that wasn't to far away for us to get to and we couldn't resist the lifer. I always love twitching what made it better was we had no news coming through (the usual excuse no mobile data) so we didn't know what we would turn up to. The bird I am talking about is a Ring Necked Duck the bird had been seen at Priorslee Lake for a few days prior to our visit so it only seemed worth a look seen as it wasn't something that turns up to often. So we began the trip to the location hoping to see the bird. On arrival there was the usual group of birders watching the bird so things were looking very promising. We were pretty much instantly on the  bird and we got great views to, it was also in a very good area surrounded by Tufted Ducks so it gave us a good opportunity to compare the two, in comparison you can clearly see the difference especially with such a good looking drake bird, the rings on the bill were very well presented. I say it is one of the best birds we have seen in a while now and it was great to get on it so quickly, often it can take hours to get onto a bird at least this time we didn't have to either hike through thick mud, or get drowned in rain, it was a nice morning and the bird showed very well indeed.

Record shot of the Ring Necked Duck I made do with my phone here. ;)

So we had a little time to pass seen as we saw the bird so quickly so we headed over to Iron Bridge for a quick walk around, its a nice little town I always love paying a visit although I don't get round to it to often, bellow are a few shots taken on the visit to Iron Bridge just though you might like a look through them.

So on the way back we had a brainwave what about Aqualate Mere? So we headed over there last time we went there I got my first Marsh Harrier a tone of Hobbies and a Peregrine, now obviously all this wouldn't be around but it was still worth a good look anyway. So we walked on down to the hide for a sit down, things were quite busy out on the Mere plenty of Shellduck were showing well as well as other wildfowl such as Wigeon, Pochard, Shoveler, and plenty more. A good few Woodpeckers were around including Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Green Woodpecker was also heard. We also heard a singing Chiffchaff which was nice to finally hear again this early on in spring, I know a few have been around the Valley but we hadn't caught up with one yet and still haven't actually seen one but hearing them is always good. Plenty of Nuthatch were around throughout the walk around the surrounding woods which is something else we actually don't see as much of, as well as this a single Tree Creeper also made an appearance another great bird I always enjoy seeing. A great visit was had and I expect we shall be paying more visits to Aqualate during the summer time it always seems to be a productive place to go to so its always worth a visit.

Well that's it for this post I always enjoy heading off to new places from time to time, seeing the Ring Necked Duck made the day overall, hopefully many more birds like this to come, I've been twitching and properly life listing for only a short amount of time perhaps only 4 or 5 years now so its great to really start making progress and seeing new birds, I want to thank everyone for reading these posts also, its great to see increasing interest in the blog and it seems what I originally set it up for (to share my experiences) is beginning to become more prominent on the blog. If you look at some of my very old posts you'll see a real difference in content, back when I started out I was literally saying where we went and listing the birds seen that was it, but since I began to really care and think about what I was writing it has developed into a serious hobby and I can't help but post all the birding I do so thanks for keeping up with the blog and there shall be more posts to come soon.

Thanks for reading and happy birding- WB