Ringing in an update

A quick update is that the ring-necked duck was still present to at least this afteroon - all the details with this and the scaup (and it's half cousins) are on Erich's blog here. 

Thanks to the finder, Tony Disley from InFocus Optics who sent us these much improved shots of the bird from yesterday:

For anybody not in the know the reason for the excitement is that this is an american vagrant species which is a relatively uncommon visitor to our shores - though a few get blown across every year on high winds and tag along with their European cousins - tufted ducks and in this case scaup too - which are an infrequent but annual visitor to the reserve.  To read more on the species visit this American site.  Its the first time at Tophill for 8 years and the best bird of 2012 - so far...

A later edit: thanks to HVWG for this picture from today also: