A cold clear day in February saw Nicole, Andrew and I driving to Abberton Reservoir, south of Colchester, in Essex. This is a wonderful site which every year seems to attract a good range of wintering wildfowl.
We started off on Layer Breton Causeway, one of two that crosses the reservoir. A Buzzard sat in a tree and there were 7 Greenland Whitefront Geese plus a small group of Canada Geese, but apart from these there were only a few Mallard and a single Goldeneye on this section.
Our next stop was the second Causeway, Layer de la Haye. Here we found a group of Goosander, 2 Slavonian Grebes, two Scaup (distant view), plus some common ducks. On the causeway edge we also found a Common Redshank and a Rock Pipit.
Leaving here we went to the peninsular which juts out into the Reservoir, Our first stop is Hide Bay hide. Here we found a female Smew and a male Ring-necked Duck on the far side of the reservoir. unfortunately they were too distant for photos.
In front of the hide there were 2 Great White Egret, a Little Egret and a Spoonbill.
Next we went to Gwen’s hide where we saw a group of Black-necked Grebes out in the middle of the reservoir.
Then it was back to the visitor centre for some refreshment before returning to Layer Breton Causeway, where in addition to the Canada and whitefront Geese there was now a large party of Greylag Geese.
A great day out on which we recorded 57 species and had great views of a number of our winter wildfowl visitors.
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