GND and GWT in the rain

It poured it down for most of the day today, making it a challenge to get even a short distance from the car without gettting soaked, and it was such a dull day that it didn't go properly light until about 9am and it was nearly dark again by 3pm. Still, we made the most of the day, and headed first for West Kirby, where there has been a juvenile great northern diver on the marine lake for the past day or two. It showed as well as any great northern diver I have ever seen, but no sign today of the long staying red-throated diver. Also here, about eight red-breasted mergansers and 20 pale-bellied brent geese flew over the sea.

Then we headed for the relative comfort of the hides at Martin Mere, where there has been a green-winged teal seen on and off for a week or two. It was two days since it was last reported, and that was from the In Focus hide which is the closest one to the building and therefore involved the least walking in the rain. However as we ate our lunch in the car, we got news that it had been relocated at the Ron Barker hide, which is just about as far away from the reception as it can be! Even worse, when we got to the hide there were no other birders present, so we had to find it again for ourselves in amongst the masses of Eurasian teal and wigeon which were feeding on the flooded rushy grassland on Sunley's marsh, and the rain was now bouncing down making viewing difficult. Fortunately it didn't take us too long to relocate the bird and we watched it for about two hours before the rain finally eased up and we decided to take the opportunity to call it a day.

Year: 265 (green-winged teal)

This is todays bird at Martin Mere.

This is not todays bird! It's the Caerlaverock green-winged teal from last November.