20th December 2021 - Abberton and Fingringhoe

 A pre-christmas trip was arranged by Andy, John, Jenny and Tim aiming for a late boost to year list totals. Abberton Reservoir was the first choice venue due to the large number of interesting species reported there recently and nearby Fingringhoe Wick provided the possibility of finding some new waders for John.

First stop was at the Layer de la Haye causeway at Abberton where we saw goosander and goldeneye fairly close to the edge of the reservoir together with many resting pochard and tufted ducks. On the other side of the road there were mainly shovelers which were a little further out. 

                     Goosander

                     Goldeneye

Next we moved into the reserve through the visitor centre and proceeded to the Island and Bay hides where we were able to see some pintails, Bewick's swans and a great white egret next to a little egret which showed the striking difference in size between the two.

There were also many fieldfares and a few redwings in the trees and on the grass near the path to the hides.

                     Pintail

                     Bewick's swan

 

                             Little egret and great white egret

                     Fieldfare

We moved on to Gwen's hide where a long tailed duck had been seen earlier but there was no sign of it while we were there and so we returned to the car and drove round to Layer Breton causeway where we were briefly able to see the red head smew until it suddenly disappeared without trace before we were able to photograph it.  There was nothing else of note at that causeway and we then headed back towards Layer de la Haye causeway again but on the way there I noticed what appeared to be several cattle egrets in a field on the right hand side of the road.  The passengers in the car were too busy sharing out sausage rolls to notice but I pulled in to a layby and after getting out of the car I was able to confirm that they were indeed cattle egrets.

                     Cattle egret

Arriving back at Layer de la Haye causeway we set about trying to find a scaup amongst the many pochard and tufted ducks.  Eventually Tim's patience paid off and he pointed one out and was able to photograph it when its head was finally raised from its resting position.

                     Scaup

At about 2 o'clock we made our way to Fingringhoe Wick nature reserve where we had approximately two hours to find some waders.  High tide had been at about 12 o'clock so waders were starting to reappear as the water receded and we were able to see dunlin, redshank, black tailed and bar tailed godwits, avocets, curlews, oystercatchers, ringed plover, grey plover, lapwing and just as we were about to leave Tim spotted a flock of golden plover upon a raised mud mound which nobody else had spotted as they were well camouflaged in the fading light.

                     Golden plover

 

We then made our way out of the reserve and set off for home after a great day's birding with about 65 species seen in total and additional year ticks numbering 1 for Tim and Jenny, 6 for Andy and I believe 17 for John.