A Long-tailed Duck appeared in Peckham the other day. Not the most obvious place for one to turn up, but seeing as I've now seen more LTDs in London than Mallards, frankly it appears they can get anywhere. I went about five years without seeing a local one, but between last November and today I'd seen 283,990 within ten miles of my house. Once Peckham has been checked out, the bird wisely moved on, heading to a duck pond in Greenwich. Go and see it, urged James L, it shows like a dream. No time, grrrrr. I considered going to see it there on Saturday morning, but failed to wake up, and in the event it wasn't there anyway, having now decided that Rotherhithe was where it was at, which is where Rich B found it a little later. Come and see it, he urged, and bring a long lens! But cousin Emma would not have been pleased if I'd chosen a duck over her wedding, so I decided to give it a miss. However as of yesterday evening it was still there, so on the off-chance that it might still be there today, I bowled up to work in Canary Wharf toting my camera bag.
It was still there, and I got regular updates during the day of its continued presence. This caused me to press the sod-it button relatively early this evening, and one short tube stop later I was staring at my 283,991st London Long-tailed Duck. Sweet. Except that it stayed resolutely in the centre of Canada Water. Rich, still at work, suggested finding some bread to tempt the Tufties in, the thinking being that the LTD would likely follow. So I toddled off to Tescos with my 500mm under my arm and bought a loaf for 90p, getting some pretty strange looks.
It worked like a charm, though the LTD probably ate more bread than the Tufties, ahem. I had to become a temporary member of the Rotherhithe Angling Club in order to get low to the water; nothing like trashing a pin-striped suit with a bit of guano in the pursuit of art and happiness. In the end Rich couldn't resist the lure of seeing it yet again, and so came down and joined me for what was some quality pappage. Gazillions more photos here. A Common Tern was also hanging around, so I papped that too. It's what people like me do.
After a week cooped up some fresh air and shutter abuse seemed a reasonable tonic, so I toddled off to Shoeburyness at first light hoping that the female Long-tailed Duck and Common Scoter might still be present on the lake at Gunner's Park - scene of my OBP triumph (successful twitch) a couple of months ago. Happily they were both still there, and, with patience, sore knees, and a cold, wet bottom, showed extremely well. What was not quite so wonderful was the abysmal light throughout my visit, and a near continual soft mizzle. Oh for a bit of sunshine, but I guess you take what you can get in these situations, and without wishing to bore you overly, it's amazing what can be done with high ISO speeds these days. Interestingly they stuck together the entire time, mostly very closely indeed, which I gather is causing untold problems for the Church of England.
After three hours of happy pappage (more of which can be seen here), I decided I was cold and had had enough, and so toddled back down the A13 to civilisation. Passing Rainham I noticed, illegally, that the Ross's Goose was back. Not that I think it has a snowgoose's chance in hell of getting on the list, but you can never be too careful, and in any event I've never seen one, plastic or otherwise. And very cute and dinky it was too, albeit distantly from the sea wall, and in rather dodgy and highly undesirable company. To be clear, I didn't meet Dick until back near Aveley Bay car park; the goose was with Greylags. Much year-tickage also occurred, with my first 2013 Wigeon, Little Egret and so on - in fact there was a bit of that at Shoeburyness as well now I come to think of it. A Kestrel near the Serin Mound was fairly confiding - I can see myself going back on a sunny day.
Finished up back on the patch, where in a daring mission of high skill and lightning-fast reactions, I found both Firecrest and Nuthatch in Bush Wood, and didn't get mugged.
