Teal Time

Nice early start allowed me to drop into both Cullaloe and Inverkeithing this morning, where Teal were the main feature of the day. The normally skulky collection of Teal at Cullaloe were instead out in full view on the pond and uber-active. Some seemed to have paired off already and stood apart from the crowd, while unpaired males swarmed around available females and displayed. Their head display is so quick that it's hard to catch in a photo, pushing their head forward and up before whipping it backwards, all in a fraction of a second. One female At Cullaloe paddled round in circles as drakes flew in front of one another to get her attention. This scene was also playing out at Inverkeithing when I arrived there.

Nothing appeared to be actively migrating especially, an a Dunlin count of 40-odd was as good as it got. While some gulls loafed around there wasn't anything of note.

Loafing Herring Gulls

Common Gulls

Black-headed Gulls and Dunlin

Dunlin

Teal in typical Inverkeithing setting

Look at me! Look at me!

Another suitor

Unusually approachable Redshank

Domestic exotica