Finally got ourselves over to Kerry for the White-winged Scoter.... and a few surprises.
Firstly, the Irish roads have improved beyond all recognition nowadays, with good quality motorway all the way from Dublin to Limerick - probably halving the drive time and secondly, and more importantly, the duck was a real surprise - much better bird than I'd expected!
This image (Chris Batty's) is the best of the bird so far and shows just how distinctive it is compared to Velvet. The 'Rhino horn' stands out a mile, even at distance and the bill pattern (also ruling out deglandi) was also very obvious in the field. A very instructive and worthwhile twitch.
That's 770 (Netfugl) for the WP - something like 786 IOC. With the news that the 'Eastern-type' Yellow Wag in Devon has proven to be just that by dna, and proposed splits like American Great Egret and Siberian Chiffchaff in the pipeline, 800 looks not too far off now :-)
Nice one Stew
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