Ring-necked Duck

 Yet more shameless abandoning of the county today as Alan Shorrock and I took the short trip to Eyebrook Reservoir in search of interesting wildfowl. My main hope was to catch up with the Ring-necked Duck that my brother and I had dipped on a previous visit but there were other goodies present too that ensured it was far from being a one trick pony. Weather conditions were a little on the dreary side with outbreaks of drizzle featuring far more than the occasional brief sunny spell.

Shozzer struck first when he picked out the immature female Ring-necked feeding near the opposite shore in company with other ducks below the plantation. Clear though distant views were obtained both then and a bit later on when I refound it. We moved on a little after this to a point looking across towards the car park at Stoke Dry. First bird was a very fine looking drake Smew that Alan found, I returned the favour soon afterwards with the discovery of two redheads. Four immature Scaup were a welcome discovery and certainly the most that I've seen here. Three were to show fairly closely from the car park and provided my only photographic opportunities of the day. Not long afterwards I picked out a female Red Crested Pochard while Shozzer found a drake close by. A presumed Red Crested and Common Pochard hybrid was a nice looking bird and also one of our last decent sightings of the visit.

At this point a flat battery in Alan's car promised to spoil our day somewhat but a timely intervention by another birder with jump leads saved the day. With the trusty steed restored to something approaching good health we decided to head off while the going was good with one brief stop at the car park before we departed.

Scaups