Blue-winged Teal at Donna Nook

Sunday saw us head over to Donna Nook on the east coast in Lincolnshire so Alex could catch up with the drake Blue-winged Teal that had been present there for a couple of weeks now. Arriving at the main car park we were met with considerable negativity, with a group of birders telling us the bird wasn’t about that morning, that the pond was extremely hard to find (with us needing to wade through thick reeds and quick sand to get to) and that the walk was horrific with the pool miles away from the car park! Not fancying our chances, we made the walk over to the pool, which in all honesty was no way near as bad as everyone made out – merely a 30 minute journey along the beach!

After following the directions we had been given, we tracked down the pool the teal had been favouring, and we joined the 4 or 5 assembled birders on the large grassy bank who had already located the bird on the island in the middle of the water just in front of us, well hidden and camouflaged in the vegetation.

Spot the teal!

After a while, this attractive American visitor swam out on to the open water where it proceeded to feed around the other side, venturing to the left and right of the trees and giving good views as it dabbled in the small reeds.

Having seen a drake already at Inner Marsh Farm in Cheshire back in 2013, it was nice to catch up with a second, and with a cast of gorgeous showy Yellow Wagtails and my first Lesser Whitethroats of the season trilling happily and flitting around in the scrub, a good day’s birding was had.

For anyone going, the pool has seemed quite hard to find for some – see directions below:

Blue-winged Teal map at Donna Nook

Parking at Donna Nook car park (LN11 7PD) off Marsh Lane, take the walk to the right on the boardwalk and follow the gravel track past the salt marsh to Point A. Once the track runs out, turn left through the wooden fence and onto the sand, following the beach right. MOD debris and a broken down helicopter will be on your right, with a dead seal further up the beach to the left. Continue along the beach and follow the path where stated on the signs due to the MOD Firing Range. You will need to count the tall brown Quad Towers on the right hand side in the dunes – once you reach the third one at Point B, turn right in to the dunes and immediately left there is a large, rusty gate to stop the cattle leaving the field (Point C). Enter this field walking along the flat grass, then head right at Point D through the small dune scrub until you reach a large grassy bank, with a large pool and several smaller pools adjacent. The Blue-winged Teal can be found on either the large flat pool on the right, or one of the smaller pools to the left with the small shrubby islands, where it can hide in the vegetation on either side. If wanting a close approach and to cross over to the other bank on the seaward side of the pools, wellies is advisable as the surrounding mud can be quite sticky!