Red crested Pochard at Watermead CP South. 17th April 2009.

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After finishing work I checked out Watermead South to see if there were any Terns around?
Getting out of the car and walking towards the shoreline. I noticed straight away a MEGA bird for the Soar Valley. The MEGA bird was a lovely drake Red-crested Pochard!!
In almost twenty years of watching my local patch of the Soar Valley this was the first time I had ever seen a Red-crested Pochard in the Soar Valley.
So over the last week I've had three local patch ticks, Red-rumped Swallow, Avocet and the icing on the cake, the drake Red-crested Pochard.
Knowing that the duck was quite rare in the valley I texted and phoned my birding mates of my find.
As the duck was showing very well off the car park due to constant feeding of bread by the locals I took a few record shots of the bird.

Just before driving home I checked out the scrape at Wanlip Meadows and noted that two Green Sandpipers was still there, but no sign of yesterday's Avocet.


Cheers to John for the supplying the top shot of the Red-crested Pochard.

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