Green Winged Teal - Maldon

I mananged to get over to the River Chelmer today for the Green Winged Teal; reports came in that it had been showing shortly after the A414 bridge this morning.

Parking at Tesco, i joined the river to see a birder some 400 yards ahead. Herring, Black Headed & Common Gull as i came onto the walkway to my left with a single Mute Swan.

I continued under the bridge looking at all the Teal i could see, which meant it took me 10 seconds as i could only see two.

Mallard x5 along the edging along with Mute Swan x3

Continuing on i found my 3rd, and BINGO, Green Winged Teal x1. It was walking on the mud bank on the far side with really good views before it flew off up river to stop at the bend just before the reed beds start.

It wasnt far so i headed up and managed even more viewing. I looked up river to see two others now with scopes out viewing something so decided to join them.

They were on a Water Rail however when i mentioned the GWT neither had seen it so we all headed back. Got views again for another 5 minutes or so which is where we all left it (bend by the fallen tree just before the reed beds start).

courtesy of www.roys-world.blogspot.com

One of the two guys i met today was Paul Baker from the Southend Area; nice to meet you Paul if you read this.