Trip reports

Bird Walk at Abberton Reservoir.

Saturday, 16 February 2008

Ten people took part in this session at a bright sunny Abberton but accompanied by a very stiff easterly breeze which whipped up the surface of the water and made for rather unpleasant viewing conditions. After Thursdays culling of Ruddy Ducks by DEFRA we were pleased to still find a few of these endearing small ducks visible to the east of the Layer Breton Causeway.
On a more pleasing subject Abberton, and in particular the small reedbeds only a stone's throw away from the south-west corner of the Layer Breton Causeway, is, at least, during the colder winter months home to up to three Bitterns which are frequently observed, more normally in the early morning or particularly on the approach of dusk. Occasional sightings are made during the day and although we did not see one whilst at that location, one was seen a couple of hours later, albeit rather briefly.

On the scrape at some distance from the road were two female (Redhead) Smew , a Little Egret and a flock of about 40 Wigeon. To the west of the causeway were numerous Pochard with good numbers of Tufted Ducks, several Goosander and a few Goldeneye. A Redshank flew in from the west and landed on the concrete surround close to us and then slowly moved along the edge towards where there were at least 4 Egyptian Geese.

Driving round to the Layer De La Haye Causeway the setaside on the left hand side is currently blessed with large numbers of Reed Buntings and although the causeway itself did not produce many birds we found several Teal sheltering under the surrounding willows and best of all a fine male Smew, one of our most attractive winter visitors. Also seen here were two White-fronted Geese. In the field at the north-western end of the causeway which has been planted with hundreds of small saplings there was a large flock of mixed finches and buntings, mainly Chaffinch, but with small numbers of Brambling and Yellowhammer, but these were difficult to observe as they spent much of the time feeding on the ground where for the most part they were hidden from sight.

A visit to the Essex Wildlife Trust Centre was most welcome enabling us to thaw out. A brief walk to the Scott Hide found very little but back at the Centre we were able to watch a lovely male Siskin which twice came down to the pool for a drink and a furtive Wren which moved around the edge of the pool over several minutes. Just as we were about to leave a female Sparrowhawk landed in a tree overlooking the pool and gave marvellous views for about four minutes before it moved on. A fine uplifting end to a bitterly cold day.