Day 3 Abberton and Colchester

I had booked the morning off again today so we headed up the A12 to start our day at Abberton on the Layer Breton causeway. A large raft of Pochard were present but we failed to find the Canvasback amongst them. A pair of Smew were found distantly by the reed bed and then two pairs of Red-crested Pochard dropped in for my first new bird of the year.

We drove around to Layer-de-le-Haye causeway and scanned the Pochard there which were rafting behind hundreds of Coot but again failed to pick out the Canvasback. We left pretty confident we hadn't missed it but disappointed not to have seen it today. A Rock pipit was on the causeway and several Goosander gave me a couple more year ticks. Goldeneye and Great crested Grebes made up most of the other birds on the reservoir.

Goosander

Goosander

Rock Pipit

We left Abberton on news that the Waxwings had been found in Colchester but returned after enjoying watching them for a while. A drive around to Abberton Church and a very muddy wet walk down to the viewing screen where we found Wigeon and Goldeneye making up the numbers but failed to locate the Velvet Scoters despite them being reported as still viewable from the exact place we were standing, nobody else was present so I have no idea who reported them but guess they're there somewhere. The rain picked up so we left for one more drive around the causeways which failed again to locate the Canvasback. A quick drive down Warren Lane delivered two pairs of Mandarin on the silt lagoon at Stanway but we gave up on searching for the reported Glauc due to the access restrictions to the site.

Waxwing

A Mistle Thrush as we drove through Birch was my final year tick of the day.

Year list now 112