Harlequin Duck

On 18th February a Harlequin Duck turned up at Balranald RSPB in North Uist - a mega rarity. I knew of people who travelled from the South of England to see it, but we weren't that keen, perhaps if we'd been in Perth then maybe, but we weren't. By the end of March it was still there and we started to hope that it may remain until we were on the Uists in Mid May. It was still there 25th April, but disappeared on the 26th and hasn't been seen since. Still we were heading to Balranald today and I looked up the old sightings, thinking I might as well have a look at where it used to hang out, you never know.

We arrived around 10:30, I checked the sightings book and couldn't believe what I read, I kept checking the date and the time. Was it a wind up? It said the Harlequin Duck had been sighted again at 9:30 today at the south end of Traigh Iar - where it used to hang out. So forget the plans to go round the reserve and if we'd got time search for the Harlequin, it was straight to the Harlequin. We met the couple we'd met a couple of times at Ardivachar Point and they were unaware of the news but had spotted a small group of birders on the rocks at the south end of Traigh Iar and wondered what that was about. The four of us continued on.

On arrival the news wasn't good. The original finder, a trustworthy fellow by all accounts, had called or texted these locals, but then left the site putting the note in the book that I'd picked up on, but nobody else had seen the bird. In their words it could be anywhere between here and Iceland. Eventually the locals started drifting off until it was only me and Mrs L left, I didn't want to give up that easily. Scanning around I noticed a few of the locals on the beach and our two friends from Ardivachar Point. They were waving at us. Five minutes later we joined them and there maybe 100m away was the Harlequin Duck.

No prizes for guessing what you'll find over at RCB.