Garganey at Elton

Garganey - 15/16th August 2018

Checking the local bird sites on the web I noted that a Garganey had made an appearance this morning in front of the boat house at Elton Reservoir in Bury, as I hadn't been out for a few days I though why not and have a go for some images.

Arriving at the car park I was some what taken aback as the car park disappointedly has been taken over by "travellers" who seem to be involved in scrap metal !....anyway back to the task in hand.

Having already seen some images of a female / immature Garganey I had good idea what to look, but before I unload all the gear I wanted to locate the duck to save me humping all the gear in the event of an abortive trip but still a little nervous about leaving gear in the car. A scan from the footbridge I pick up the duck which is sat on the waters edge with three Mallard, so back I go to unpack the gear.

Shooting towards the town in the afternoon the light angle is always going to be wrong with whites and greys washing out the colours, to make matters worse the Garganey isn't very approachable. Working myself into the best position I could manage I take some images of which the best is below, but with time running out due to prior engagement I have too call time with the intension of trying again tomorrow.

Garganey - female / possible immature. Wednesday

The weather forecast for today is a lot  better being part sun and cloud so I'm optimistic for a chance of some better images. Arriving around 8.30am, which is early for me I scan from the boat house footbridge but there's no sign of the duck so I make may way up to the creek. The "creek" as it's known locally is a small muddy inlet where a stream from the adjacent fields enters the reservoir and is flanked by willow and other hawthorn type hedging and good for ducks such as Teal.

At the creek a Kingfisher with it's iridescent blue flashes past occasionally stuttering in flight to look for a perch to carry out what it dose best, then I hear and see Whitethroat scrambling around brambles with its guttural chuirrr, and nearby a group of Linnet are busy feeding on the seed heads in the tall vegetation.

At the furthest point right into the creek I located the Garganey dabbling at the waters edge, but this location is at the closes point the footbridge and always likely to get flushed by the occasional walkers crossing the bridge, so it's a quick retreat back to the car to collect the gear before all the dog walkers are out and about.

I'm now back at the creek and I've brought the throw over hide, I don't want to chance moving near the bridge so the plan is when the duck moves into side banking to move as close as I dare to the waters edge and wait my opportunity.

The light is good and as I've brought the 2x along I thought I'd give it a go, that's 1,000mm, with the "cropper" camera that's 1,600mm !!...the down side some times the images can look a little soft, but I think on this occasion the images look perfectly ok for my use.

Over the next 60 minuets the Garganey happily feeds at the waters edge occasional disappearing under the over hanging vegetation, this gives me the opportunity to switch to the 1.4x extender with it's better image quality for when the Garganey occasional comes nearer.

After a a quiet period and for no reason that I can see the duck takes to the air flying off in the direction of the boat house, and that's it session over. Heading back I don't located the Garganey again, on the other hand I'm not concentrating that hard as I'm happy with the recored images already in the bag.

Garganey - Thursday

I've included this image as it shows some nice under wing detail, image was taken with the 2x extender at a 1,000mm which is some what softer than when using the 1.4x.

After some ten minuets of carrying out some feather maintenance the Garganey eventually finishing off with a wing flap, as I antisipated this it gave me the chance to up the shutter speed, I still could have done with just a little more thou !