Merlin and the return of the ring-necked duck, Martin Mere

One of the nicest male merlins I've ever seen at Martin Mere at midday, on Plover field from United Utilities hide. Beautiful contrast of blue grey upperparts and orange hue underparts. I'm never going to get great photos of a flying merlin with my camera setup, but even so these are good enough to id it. Dark terminal band on the tail and dark outer wing all obvious in the photos. It was on the ground when it was first picked up and I waited an hour for it to fly to get these photos. Apart from this plenty of good birds to see, the obvious other highlight being the ring-necked duck from Discovery hide.

Nice tuft! The bird is coming out of eclipse, it's not uncommon for ring-necked ducks to have a scraggy hairdo on a windy day such as today. If there is any doubt, the bill pattern alone confirms the identification.

Whooper swans dropping in, but are they new arrivals or is this a local movement? I mean, I know from friends on Barra that they are still arriving in numbers there, so these could well be new arrivals.

Pink-footed geese dropping in.