Abberton

I had a decent visit to Abberton on Friday. As winter approaches the duck numbers increase and there's always the chance of finding something odd among them. 

I found four Cattle Egret in the cow field before getting to the causeway and with the scope up I scanned the ducks which are mostly Tufted and Pochard with smaller numbers of Gadwall, Teal, Mallard and Shoveler. There's lot's of Great Crested Grebes, Geese and Swans too along with the odd escapee or strange looking hybrid.

Nothing stood out despite reports of some Red-crested Pochard being present which I still need for a pointless year tick. From the main causeway at LDLH I picked out lots of Pintail and six Goosander before moving my attention to waders. A move to Wigborough bay added to the wader count which now included Lapwings, Golden Plover, Blackwits, Dunlin, Redshank and several Ruff. A Fox was a strange site as it walked through the Lapwings without putting them up.

Two of the four Cattle Egrets

Fox walking through Lapwings at Wigborough bay

Goosanders

Great White Egret

Great White

Great Egret.....We dropped the white when we adopted IOU names 

Great Egret

An enjoyable visit and a nice little fix to take my mind off all the images coming through of the Varied Thrush on Papa Westray which is unfortunately way out of my twitching zone and budget.

I'm still looking for those elusive year ticks to prevent me setting a new low to my year listing totals.