Filey, 31 from '13 - #1

First up in this (hopefully) daily series of photo highlights from my year in Filey is a personal favourite, Long-tailed Duck. A generally pretty difficult species to catch up with locally (with often only a handful of records annually), this year has been particularly productive, and I've connected with at least twenty, mainly through sea-watching; unusually, however, this gorgeous male spent a day at the Dams in January, and was good enough to swan around just a few metres from the hide for a while.

At the other end of the year, this slightly less flashy female spent half an hour or so feeding (apparently on small aliens) off the Brigg a couple of weeks ago, and preceded a run of fly-bys as the winter kicked in.

Long-tailed Duck off the Brigg

Continuing the theme of winter beach walk bonuses (expect this one to run and run), another saunter along the bay and out onto the Brigg this afternoon produced an unexpected bonus in the shape of this Long-tailed Duck, feeding close inshore by the rocks.

Mild, dull and overcast conditions made for not-great photo opps, but with a nice assembly of waders to enjoy and less and less people around by the day, no complaints.

Tails of the Unexpected

Justifiably upsetting the greatest hits series, this cripplingly beautiful adult male Long-tailed Duck seems like the best possible reason to do so. Following a late night (which included playing at and enjoying the fellow freaks of the Filey Folk Club - another time), I was woken by a text this morning (thanks Ian) - 'LTD Dams'.

Not a common bird in any situation, a Long-tailed Duck at the Dams - our small but perfectly formed local wetland - was well worth the five minute cycle, even if, as assumed, it turned out to be a scruffy immature.

Locking up the bike, I was told it'd just flown. Inkeeping with a new year's resolution to be appreciably more zen about such things, I wandered over to the other (East) hide anyway, and wonderfully, there it was - a stunning adult male, just metres from the hide.... and unlike every other duck on the pool, it chose to swim closer and closer.

It may not be an uber-rare, but as an early contender for bird of the month, it's got a very good shot. And as a timely reminder as to why it's worth getting out there despite the time of year and unpromising conditions, it couldn't get much better.

Long-tailed Duck, Filey Brigg

Another local speciality, this Long-tailed Duck performed beautifully alongside the Little Auks, waders and various other species by the Brigg the other day. Never easy to catch up with, this bird was my second of the year (after a summer plumage male briefly in the bay corner, back in June).