With dense fog from midday on up here in the gods I was lucky that Ogden was just below the cloud base although at 1500 hrs it was very dull light with a strong WNW>5 driving horizontal drizzle over the water but not hearing anything about the Ogden Pintails I thought I,d better give it a go .
A scan from the prom found nothing ,but Mallards were spread all around the waters edge which did,nt make matters easy. With limited time against the fading light I started on the east side and walked on as far as the passerine alley watch point having a good scan through the little groups of Mallards with no luck, apart from the Little Grebe and a female Goosander, and was ready for thinking they had gone, as I would have expected, when I picked out 2 ducks near the NW corner dabbling in the waters edge.
After a bit of eye straining I could just make out the white flash up the head of the male. Got em, they were still here.
A marathon dash now round to the nw corner to find nothing. A search of all the shoreline and the water produced just a few Mallard so it was a dash down the west side checking the shoreline all the way down as I started to disbelieve that I had even seen them.
Back on the prom and the light seriously fading a final scan round and again I picked them out back where I had started from near passerine alley.
This was getting beyond a joke but I was passed the point of no return now so a second marathon back down the east side where I finally got to a gap in the hedges to find them near the shore and just enough light to get a few record snaps once I had got my breath back enough to hold the camera steady.
Job done and head for home with a smile like a Cheshire cat. Its sessions like this that make me love birding.
BS