Lesser Scaup at Abberton

Sunday evening saw news that a Lesser Scaup had been found at Abberton but today was the first time I could travel for it and needing it for an Essex tick and a year tick I decided to go and called the Jims to arrange an early start. We saw the now resident Cattle Egrets as we drove down to Abberton and made our way straight down to Lodge Lane where we walked down the lane to the reservoir. We scanned the Tufted ducks and thought we could see the Lesser Scaup in the group but decided to walk down to the first view point  for a closer look. A Black Swan in the bay was a little unexpected.

poor record shot of the Lesser Scaup

We were joined by another five birders and found the target in the raft of ducks in front of the view point.

Amongst the Tufted and Pochard group were a few Goldeneye, three Greater Scaup along with two hybrids one which looked to be Tufty/Pochard and the other Tufty/RND.

The Lesser Scaup could be picked out by the head shape and in good light showed that nice purple sheen too. 

Having added Lesser Scaup to the year list (184) and indeed to my pointless Essex list (272) we moved on to the farm hoping for a Yellow Wagtail. At the farm we found lots of Skylark and hundreds of Black-headed Gulls feeding out in Wigborough bay but no Yellow Wags so we moved on to the screen and as we were trying again without joy we had a couple of Spoonbill fly over heading towards Layer Breton so we jumped in the car and headed across to the causeway but alas we couldn't find the Spoonbill there. A Great White Egret was seen along with Green Sandpiper before a flyover Sand Martin and three Swallows to add a couple of bonus year ticks before we left for home. We also found time to grab some images of a pair of Little ringed Plover on the causeway as we scanned the gulls hoping for something a little rarer.

(As always thanks to the guys that put in the time and effort to nail the ID and put news out.)

Year list now 185

Essex list now 272