AWOL Duck and some welcome Spring migrants

I decided to head up to Teesside yesterday with a Lesser Scaup in mind, when the reserve opened I took a leisurely walk out to the Triangle Pool at Haverton where it had been the last couple of days only to be told it had flown into the reeds five mins previously, I hung around for quite a while expecting it to eventually swim back out but to no avail although my first Wheatear of the year was a nice distraction, I eventually admitted defeat not quite believing it could have remained in the reeds all that time and carried on back round to the visitor centre picking up my first Chiffchaff of the year as well. Back at the centre my suspicions were realised when I found out the Scaup had actually left the Haverton area, landed briefly on the main lake but then flown off again, Oh well, I had some lunch then checked out the Fire Station Pools where I got another year tick, a Little Ringed Plover, a look at Seaton Common next didn’t find much at all so I headed back and took a walk out to Seal Sands, Long Tailed Duck and Slavonian Grebe were showing here but fairly distant there were also a few pairs of Avocets back in the Greatham Creek area plus Spotted Redshank and Greenshank among the more commoner Waders. Late afternoon back at the car I checked for any news and found the Lesser Scaup had been relocated on Back Saltholme Pool, I dashed back there and managed to see it with barely any time to spare before the reserve closed, good views through the screen but would have been better had the hide still been open, I ended the day over at Dormans Pool where I managed to find the long staying Green Winged Teal but again it was very distant.

a couple of crappy record shots