Time for another visit to Abberton as there have been a few new arrivals despite the mild winter. What is most noticeable over the last few years is the low numbers of Goldeneye present. When I used to come here years ago, there were hundreds of Goldeneyes spread across the whole expanse of water. Recently, however, you are struggling to get into double figures. To illustrate my point, from the Layer Breton causeway there was just a single drake in view which luckily was diving quite close to the bank.
On the western side of the causeway a single drake Goosander was keeping very much to the middle of the reservoir, but then for some unknown reason it started swimming in my direction and eventually ended up diving next to the reed bed by the weir allowing some reasonable shots to be taken.
Down at the Layer de la Haye causeway a single female Goosander was swimming just off-shore from the outflow but soon moved off as I put by head and lens over the parapet.
But the stars today were the rare grebes starting with a single bird at the visitor centre end of the causeway. Luckily it appeared to prefer diving in the shallows meaning that most of the time it was reasonably close to the raised bank.
At the other end of the causeway a couple of Slavonian Grebes were copying the action allowing some close-ups to be taken. What a superb day!!
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