I had agreed with Gary Howard that we should meet up before heading off on trips and he invited me to go with him James and Barry on an Essex birding adventure. After scraping some serious frost of the car and an icy journey to Gary's arriving around 6am, we picked up James and Barry and headed through the rush-hour traffic, arriving at Peldon, on the edge of Abberton Reservoir, just before 8am. It was -5C and felt bitterly cold in the shade, but was due to be a still sunny but cold day, ideal Winter birding weather.
We walked out and started to scan the vast reservoir. There were good numbers of common wildfowl with the flocks of Tufted Duck, Pochard and Coot in their several hundreds but most of these flocks were too distant to pick out anything unusual, so we concentrated on the nearer birds being largely the expected wildfowl with Wigeon, Teal and Pintail and a staggering number of Great-crested Grebes. We did find 3 rather distant Bewick's Swans, several Goosander, Goldeneye and Great Egrets well into double figures. We moved to another viewing area and found 2 Smew, a smart drake and a redhead, on the far bank such a difficult species to see anywhere now in Winter in the UK. We had initially missed the group of ducks on the nearest bank as they were slightly obscured by trees and reeds but when they moved out a little we found the main target with them a nice male Lesser Scaup and also 8 Greater Scaup (2 drakes). A Green Sandpiper and a Marsh Harrier were also seen on the far bank, and perhaps surprisingly given the time of year a Spoonbill. We then drove the short distance to the main causeways. The Layer Breton causeway offered very little as we were looking over a lot of frozen water. The Layer de la Haye Causeway was much more productive with excellent views of both Slavonian Grebe and 5 Black-necked Grebes. A final stop for the reservoir at Billets Farm produced a Black-throated Diver and Ruff for the day list.
Our next stop was Mersea Island where the low winter sun was making viewing a little awkward. We had a different range of species overlooking the channel from the saltmarsh including Great Northern Diver, Med Gull, Grey Plover, Oystercatcher and Sanderling. a large flock of Brent Geese, Shelduck a Common Eider and Red-breasted Mergansers.
We had planned to our final stop as Copt Hall marshes to end the day with maybe an Owl and a bird of prey late in the afternoon and a Hen Harrier was one of the first birds we saw as we got out of the car. After a short walk we were looking at a Great Grey Shrike in a hedgerow, which gave reasonable scope views although largely into the late afternoon sun. We saw Kingfisher and Snipe and as we approached dusk a Barn Owl, and Short-Eared Owl were seen.
Final count for the day was 89 species and a lot of quality birds. It would have been difficult to see a lot of these species combined in Sussex and Kent so was a great days Winter birding.
 |
| Lesser Scaup (2nd left) with Coot and Tufted Duck |
 |
| Lesser Scaup head-on showing the small black nail at the end of the bill. |
 |
| 4 Greater Scaup |
 |
| a line of Drake Goosanders |
 |
| female Goosander |
 |
| Slavonian Grebe |
 |
| Slavonian Grebe |
 |
| Black-necked Grebe |
 |
| Black-necked Grebe |
 |
| Great Grey Shrike |
 |
| In silhouette - Great Grey Shrike |
 |
| Barn Owl |
 |
| Hen Harrier |
 |
| A clear and frozen view over the Reservoir |
 |
| The second viewpoint was productive |
 |
| From Layer de la Haye causeway |
 |
| and on Mersea Island |
 |
| Copt Hall Marshes |
 |
| Copt Hall |
