Spoonbills at Abberton Reservoir

6th April 2025

All change at Abberton with most of the winter visitors already departed and many of the summer visitors still to arrive. However, you can always rely on the Great Crested Grebes for continuity.

But what was noticeable today was there were hundreds of Black-headed Gulls flying low over the water between the two causeways, and when you got to the Layer de la Haye causeway the reason soon became apparent. On the causeway there were thousands of midges, so presumably they were flying low over the water or being blown onto the surface, and the gulls were having a feast.

The number of waders were considerably reduced with just a singleton Redshank and Little Ringed Plover.

Luckily the plover put on a bit of a performance.

The two Slavonian Grebes had moved on but some of the Black-necked Grebes were still around. There had been up to 14 during the winter but now there were just seven.

This is a view you don't often see....................

....................and this is the rare Two-headed Black-necked Grebe.

Managed to get three in the frame................

........................then four................

.....................then five.......................

......................and finally all seven.

And now on to the Spoonbills. Spoonbills bred for the first time at Abbertin in 2021 and have bred there every year since with varying success. This year they have started much earlier than usual and today there were eight birds present in the heronry, a mixture of adults and juveniles from last year.

The juveniles have black wing tips and an orange tip to the bill stretching one third up the bill as shown here.

Adults have clear white wings and just an orange tip to the bill.

Luckily today they were very active so plenty of opportinity for some flight shots.

So far there are two occupied nests so fingers crossed for a successful outcome.