Another duck addition

The complete lack of wader habitat at Collingham/Mons Pool is sort of being made up for by a succession of scarce ducks; after recent Scaup and Common Scoter, I added a Mandarin today to my patch yearlist. A female (or maybe an eclipse drake?), it was a bit distant (and heat hazy) hence the rubbish pics.

Mandarin

Around 200 Lapwing failed to conceal anything more unusual; in fact the only other wader was a single Green Sand from the viewing screens, where there were also 16 Teal, 8 Gadwall, 3 Shoveler and a Wigeon, continuing the gradual build up of winter wildfowl.

Elsewhere, an obliging Migrant Hawker was in my garden in Newark, but it appears that all the Swifts have now disappeared; the last I saw were 7 over Sherwood Avenue on Thursday, with 13 over the house on Tuesday. Always sad when these depart. 

Migrant Hawker