Green-winged Teal: Between the family duties around the festive break and now being back at work its took me a while to get myself over to Lunt.
This yank teal has made itself at home here for a few months now and I'm glad its stuck around so I could go and see it. The bird was associating with the Eurasian teal on the great-white egret pool at the far end of the site.
It eventually showed really well after drifting in from the submerged vegetaion and took a power nap on the nearside bank close to the sluice.
Richardson's Cackling Goose: Another bird that has taken up residence at Lunt, albeit for a much short time so far is this diminutive cousin of the Canada goose, the cackling goose. With stubbier bills, steeper foreheads and a shorter neck they side by side they really do stand out.
Cackling geese that frequently in the wild in the UK, usually associate themselves with either barnacle or pink-footed geese. However there has also been a number of records of birds appearing on their own or with feral geese and these are often assumed to be escaped birds - this may be the case but it is entirely plausible that at least some are wild birds too.
Smew: A good morning spent on the reserve topped off by a drake smew, this bird initially gave me the run around and I saw it fly off from the main lake land on one of the border pools.
