Blue-Winged Teal female in flight with Shoveler.
Having heard that there was a female Blue-Winged Teal on Restharrow scrape in Sandwich had me heading that way , i was greeted with the news its just flown out of sight behind the reeds ( yep usual story !!!! ) , i was also informed it was keeping close company with a male Shoveler , i kept scanning the reeds where it had flown into and could make out the Shoveler and eventually they female Blue Winged Teal also came into view but very obscured behind the reeds .
Female Blue-Winged Teal.
Eventually the Blue-Winged Teal came into full view at the back of the scrape and was never very far away from the Shoveler , something spooked them as they both took to the air and flew straight towards the hide veering of to the left and landed again in the reeds , they did come out in the open a few times but never that close .
Blue-winged Teal and Shoveler.
I added a few year ticks from the hide including approx 5 House Martins which were among a throng of Swallows and Sand Martins plus a single Common Whitethroat was displaying from one of the bushes along the side of the scrape , 2 Little Ringed Plovers were also flying around the scrape and landing on the small muddy island every so often.
One of two Little Ringed Plovers.
After about an hour of watching the Blue Winged Teal i decided to walk back to my car and check out the flooded field opposite Restharrow and was very pleased to find four Yellow Wagtails of which 2 were male Blue Headed and i am pretty sure there was also one Channel Wagtail , the fourth bird was a bog standard Yellow Wagtail but great to see all the same.
Male " Blue Headed Wagtail ".
Channel Wagtail.
A really enjoyable birding session with 5 year ticks to boot .
