Smew and a Shag at Abberton Reservoir

7th January 2018

Since our last visit to Abberton the long-staying Slavonian Grebe had been replaced by a remarkably tame 1st winter Shag, and the cold weather had at last brought in some Smew, so time for another visit. The Shag was feeding inside the sluice on the Layer de la Haye causeway and it appears that it can surface inside the sluice as it would disappear for 10+ minutes at a time, far longer than it could stay underwater.

At first I thought that there were two birds present as the one diving was a very brown individual whereas the other shots were quite dark. Shags are one of those birds where the direction of the light can make a lot of difference to the perceived colour of the bird, so this may account for the difference coupled with the fact I only saw one bird at a time. I have been coming to Abberton Reservoir for 50 years and this is the first Shag I have ever seen here, so a fairly rare visitor.

On our arrival at the Layer Breton causeway there were no Smew in sight although we were aware that eight birds were present, seven females and a single male. Then, one by one they would appear round the edge of the reed-bed by the weir and would feed along the margins of the reeds. Sadly, I could only get four red-heads in the frame at once.

There was also some opportunities for action shots.

But, of course, the subject that we are all really interested in are the stunning males which, to my mind, always seem a little too exotic to be a British bird and would be expected to be found in the Tropics.

Well, as I said earlier, I have been coming to Abberton for 50 years now and saw so many of my "firsts" here, including White-fronted Goose, Goosander, Ruddy Duck when they were still a rarity before the blitz, and a Sarus Crane that had escaped from Colchester Zoo. In fact in those days it was joked that there were more of their birds outside the zoo than inside.

Abberton continues to be a great place to visit and is always kind to my camera.