By English requirements, Abberton Reservoir is big. It covers 1,700 acres (700ha), is crossed by two causeways, helps an Essex Wildlife Belief nature reserve, and has quite a few designations for its significance for birds – it’s a Particular Safety Space (SPA), a Website of Scientific Curiosity (SSSI) and a Ramsar Website. It’s attraction is definitely defined, because it lies near the salt marshes of the Essex coast, a brief flight for any passing chicken. Within the winter it usually holds round 35,000 wildfowl, however chilly climate can push this determine up significantly.
Such massive flocks of wildfowl invariably entice the bizarre and even the uncommon. This winter a number of North American geese (Ring-necked, Lesser Scaup and Canvasback) have been reported from Abberton, together with good numbers of Goldeneyes and Goosanders, and even a number of Smew. Add in a smattering of divers and grebes and you’ll see why my birding pal Andrew and I made a decision to go to it earlier this month. And regardless of dismal, chilly climate (no sunshine, however no rain, and a most of 3degC), it didn’t disappoint.
A Inexperienced Sandpiper
The one draw back to Abberton from our viewpoint is that it’s a tedious and busy drive to get there. It might be fewer than 40 miles, however our route takes us unavoidably by means of Colchester. The primary main Roman metropolis in Britain, it was as soon as the nation’s capital. It’s grown significantly because the Romans had been right here, and it’s nonetheless rising. So regardless of leaving house at 7.30, it was after 9am that we drew up within the automobile park on the reservoir’s foremost causeway.
Nice crested grebes
Birding from a causeway has its benefits, equivalent to an absence of mud, and a wonderful commanding view, however on a chilly January day it’s a bleak expertise. Nonetheless, virtually without delay we discovered birds to heat us up. First up was a Inexperienced Sandpiper, a brand new chicken for the yr for each of us, and for me species No 111. Some work with the Orange Peril (my Swarovski journey scope) revealed each Goldeneyes and Goosanders, together with quite a few Nice Crested Grebes and a flock of Tufted Geese. A bit extra scoping produced a flock of no less than 11 Black-necked Grebes, a chicken I’d missed completely within the UK final yr, plus the bonus of a pair of Slavonian (Horned) Grebes.
One in every of a pair of Slavonian Grebes
Abberton, you received’t be stunned to study, is a well-liked birding spot. Even at 9am on a bleak January morning there have been two or three folks scoping the water, so we stopped to talk to 1 chap who, we found, was not solely an everyday customer (he lived shut by), but additionally knew what was about. Smew? “Sure, there’s three you may see from Billets Farm. There’s a Spoonbill it is best to see, whereas the Black-throated Diver has been displaying effectively. And if you wish to see a Nice Gray Shrike, there’s a dependable chicken at Copt Corridor Marshes. It’s solely three miles away. You may see it from the automobile park with a scope, nevertheless it’s greatest to stroll all the way down to the ocean wall for a greater look….” We thanked our new-found good friend, Lawrence, and set off to Billets Farm, the place we joined a small group of retired gents scoping the water looking for birds.
A duck Goosander
The Smew had been rapidly situated – a drake and two geese. The vary was appreciable, however a drake Smew, together with his splendidly sharp black and white plumage, is a simple chicken to identify. Abberton has all the time been a dependable website for locating these little sawbills to winter, however lately numbers have dwindled. These had been my first UK birds for a while – my final sighting had been in Estonia in March 2023.
Drake Goosander
With the Smew safely ticked, it was time to search for the assorted different goodies on provide. The Spoonbill was straightforward, even supposing it was quick asleep, however the Black-throated Diver (Loon) was tougher, because it was diving repeatedly, and was fairly distant. Of the three species of diver that winter often in UK waters, the Black-throated is the least quite a few, so this was a satisfying sighting. A couple of minutes later I had the scope focussed on a pair of Pink-crested Pochard, one other scarce chicken within the UK. Add in flocks of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and Linnets, plus a pair of Stonechats, together with flocks of Wigeon, Mallard, Shoveler and Gadwall, plus a number of Pintail, and you’ll acquire an concept of the birds we had been having fun with. Nonetheless, it wasn’t straightforward. One in every of our fellow watchers was complaining he couldn’t see a factor, because the chilly wind was making his eyes water so badly.
The distant Nice Gray Shrike
Twitching the shrike
The Copt Corridor shrike was our subsequent goal. We had been warned that there was a small automobile park on the website, however luckily we slotted our automobile neatly into the final obtainable spot. Nice Gray Shrikes have grow to be very scarce winter guests to the UK, and this chicken was rumoured to be the one one in the entire nation, so it had attracted fairly a twitch, therefore the complete automobile park. To get a good view of the shrike we needed to stroll all the way down to the ocean wall – the chicken was frequenting an space of thorn bushes. Discovering it was easy stuff, as these birds do prefer to perch on the tops of bushes, the place they sit and survey their territory. We loved watching it for some time, then trudged again to the automobile, listening to the rumble of a distant flock of Brent Geese, and having fun with the Mediterranean Gulls swooping over the close by fields.
A Redshank photographed from the causeway
After consuming our lunch within the automobile, we drove to the Essex Wildlife Belief’s wonderful customer centre, paid our dues, and went looking for birds as soon as once more. Our stroll to the cover was delayed barely by an sudden encounter with two previous birding pals from Kent, Chris and John, neither of whom I’d seen for ages. They hadn’t seen something distinctive, so we arrived within the cover with no expectations.
Gray Wagtail, considered one of a number of new birds for the yr
It was good to take a seat down, however there didn’t appear to be something new to see, so I scoped a flock of about 100 Tufted Geese within the hope of discovering the Ring-necked Duck that had been reported. Abruptly there was that little surge of adrenalin after I realised I’d discovered one thing good: among the many Tufted was a drake with a gray again – a scaup. Its small measurement and compact proportions confirmed that it wasn’t a Better Scaup, however a Lesser, a North American vagrant. It had been reported intermittently all through the winter, however hadn’t been seen for some days, so this was an actual prize. (I’ve little doubt that North American readers will probably be bemused by my enthusiasm for what’s such a standard chicken on the opposite aspect of the Atlantic, however the first Lesser Scaup for Britain was solely recognized as lately as 1987.) Frustratingly, it was too distant to be price pointing my digicam at.
This Rock Pipit was additionally a brand new chicken for the yr
The Lesser Scaup proved to be the very best chicken of what was actually a red-letter day that had added a exceptional variety of species to my yr checklist. Simply in case you’re questioning, the others I haven’t talked about had been Gray Wagtail and Rock Pipit. The climate had been grim, however the birds, we determined, had greater than fulfilled our expectations.
(Photographer’s footnote: it was a horrible day for taking pictures, with dismal mild and primarily distant birds.)