The day before lockdown...
With fears of an imminent lockdown looming, and following our ‘farewell’ visits to see the grandchildren, we made the most of our last chance to birdwatch away from home with a trip to Pagham North Wall on Monday 23rd March.
We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day and had an enjoyable walk along North Wall and the fields beyond. The highlight was a group of beautiful Garganey seen initially at the fringes of Breach Pool, typically elusive and obscured amongst the reeds before reappearing at the edge of the open expanse of the main pool.
Apparently this was once known as the Cricket Teal, due to the unusual call made in Spring - the Collins guidebook likens it to a Fingernail being run along a comb. Unlike most seasonal wildfowl this is a summer rather than winter visitor. It spends the winter in Africa. The male is highly attractive with a striking white crescent contrasting with a chocolate face and bold patterning on its back.
The female is plainer with a pale striped head and a whitish chin. Unfortunately we didn’t manage a picture of these.
This duck was likely to be passing through the South coast on migration - although interestingly this weekend in mid May there is another one reported on Ferry Pool at Pagham.
We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day and had an enjoyable walk along North Wall and the fields beyond. The highlight was a group of beautiful Garganey seen initially at the fringes of Breach Pool, typically elusive and obscured amongst the reeds before reappearing at the edge of the open expanse of the main pool.
Apparently this was once known as the Cricket Teal, due to the unusual call made in Spring - the Collins guidebook likens it to a Fingernail being run along a comb. Unlike most seasonal wildfowl this is a summer rather than winter visitor. It spends the winter in Africa. The male is highly attractive with a striking white crescent contrasting with a chocolate face and bold patterning on its back.
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| Drake Garganey at Breach Pool, Pagham North Wall |
The female is plainer with a pale striped head and a whitish chin. Unfortunately we didn’t manage a picture of these.
This duck was likely to be passing through the South coast on migration - although interestingly this weekend in mid May there is another one reported on Ferry Pool at Pagham.
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