North American Vagrants
We don’t usually see very much in the way of North American vagrants. Wildfowl on the loch during the winter months are usually just a handful of Goldeneye and Goosanders along with a few Mallards and Teal. Since the middle of November these locals have been joined a couple vagrants from North America, two female Ring-necked Ducks. For the past six weeks they have hardly moved out of the bay in front of the house. Despite being so close to home they have not proved to be the easiest of subjects to photograph. Most of the time feeding offshore out of camera range. They regularly bring up what appears to be the root corms of Quillwort, Isoetes, a primitive aquatic plant genus which occurs on both sides of the Atlantic. Encouraged by the presence of the ring-necked ducks I have made more of an effort to get pictures of some of the other birds on the loch. Getting displaying drake goldeneye in front of my camera has proved no easier than the Ring-necked ducks. Heavily overcast wet weather for most of January only added to the difficulties.
