I can see the Smew from here.

I had a bit of time to do some birding today so took in some local spots.

The other half was venturing down towards Twickenham on a non-rugby related event with the boy and I had some free time. Back from the station, I got on the bike and headed down to Stutton Ness in search of the Long-tailed Duck that had been around for a couple of weeks. No joy. The force three north-westerly seemed to have pushed birds elsewhere - even Goldeneye were scarce. Non-birding highlights were some nice, bubbly clouds over Manningtree and talking to a bait-digger who had been there since 6am! Now that is dedication. He had a head-torch and enough rag and lugworm as a result to last him for two days of fishing. He was telling me that a 100 lugworm costs £20 at the moment and that may only last 3-4 hours.

Dedicated bait-digger at Stutton Ness looking west towards Manningtree

 

 

Holbrook Bay, with the remains of Graham's Wharf in the foreground

 

 

A foray down to Manningtree next and after doing a few errands in town, I was looking forward to taking in the rising tide at Mistley Walls. Regrettably, our friends at the Met Office had again failed to script the forecast correctly and my time coincided with some pretty heavy showers. I had to be content with some close-in Avocet at Mistley Quay. Usually, the flock - which has got to 200+ in recent times - is distant, but these birds were only 100 metres off the quay.

 

After lunch, Alton Water beckoned. I had seen the drake Goosander off Lemon's Hill Bridge on Wednesday, across the border in Tattingstone. There had been a couple of female Smew seen from the Larchwood Hides during the week and they were my target. On the way down Alton Hall Lane, on a recently ploughed field, there was a nice gathering of 200 Common Gulls. Unusual to see a flock of small gulls round here without a Black-headed Gull amongst them. (On the way back there were 300).

 

Common Gulls (honest) with the Royal Hospital School tower (Holbrook) in the distance



 

 

 

The hides were Smew-less, but there was a good-sized flock of 134 Pochard, outnumbering their Tufted cousins four-fold. As I cycled back, I bumped in to two birders who had just seen a lone female Smew and sure enough, minutes later, I was watching it in the company of two Coots on the Stutton-side of the border.

 

The 2x zoom on the Sony Super SteadyShot DSC-W80 is just not up to the mark when it comes to wildlife photography! The two black dots in the right foreground are the Coot, the Smew is to the right of the left-hand bird (honest).