Saturday 5 February 2022

Staying local

I've stayed local this week on the few days I've managed to escape my domestic duties for long enough to enjoy some birding and yesterday I had an hour at KGV in Chingford where a quick walk the length of south basin delivered a year tick with a single Black-necked Grebe and a scan of North basin gave decent views of Red-necked Grebe and a couple of drake Scaup.

Black-necked Grebe

This morning I headed up the A12 to Abberton with the Jims and found a massive mixed flock of Tufted and Pochard and Jim picked out a single drake Red-crested Pochard whilst Dad found a couple of Snipe for me to point the camera at. Six Cattle Egret were feeding in fields at the farm and we picked out a very distant Diver sp. from the church car park.

At Abberton Church we picked out both Slavonian Grebe and Red-necked Grebe plus eight Bewick's Swans and a Kestrel entertained us whilst we scanned the distant waters. Back at the Layer Breton causeway we connected with the Long-tailed Duck among the Tufted ducks and a Red-head Smew was close enough for a few pictures. We counted at least seven Great Egrets and the hybrid Baikal/Teal was also in the area. A flock of 31 White-fronted Geese carried a single Pink-footed Goose too to make for a fabulous morning visit to this special place in our home county.

Year list now 153

The hybrid Baikal / Teal

Cattle Egret

White-fronted and Pink-footed Geese

Kestrel

Smew

Snipe



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