The First Winter Visitors at Abberton Reservoir

 28th October 2020

It's the end of October now and a chill wind so not too surprising that the first winter visitors were arriving at the reservoir. Breakfast on the Layer Breton causeway produced just a Grey Heron on sentry duty at the weir.

                          

At the Layer causeway wildfowl numbers were building up with hundreds of Great Crested Grebes, Tufted Duck and Pochards. There was also a rather late humbug.

As well as the numerous Pochards there were also three Red-Crested Pochards, which are not regular here but turn up from time to time. This one is a male still in its eclipse plumage.

There was also a pair in full plumage with the male third from the right and the female with its head tucked in the extreme left.

There was only one wader present on both causeways, a Redshank, which was enjoying the muddy bay at the extreme south-east corner of the Layer causeway. Also along that strip was a pair of Grey Wagtails.

Goosanders are now starting to arrive with about a dozen present today, mostly females.

Not very often that you see Goosanders on land.

There was only one male present, still in its final stages of moult, so not quite gleaming white.

There was a huge raft of several hundred Pochard and Tufted Ducks, and if you searched through them it was possible to pick out one particular bird, despite it being asleep with its head tucked in, that was slightly bulkier and a slightly lighter brown than the female Tufted Ducks. When it eventually woke up it was possible to confirm that it was a female Scaup with white all round the bill and a clean rounded head profile.

Here are a couple of shots showing the size difference and lighter colouration. Certainly the closest I have ever been to a Scaup.

But the star of the show today was the female Long-tailed Duck which was initially diving a fair way out from the causeway, a little too far for any decent shots. Its position was presumably driven by the depth of water. However, it then decided to bathe and preen and drifted closer to the shore with the Aythya flock giving some great opportunities.

......................and when they bathe they really go for it................

Well, Goosander, Scaup and Long-tailed Duck are a good start to the over-wintering wildfowl list, and hopefully it won't be too long now before the first Smew arrive.