Abberton 2026

Last week, I went with Andrew and Nicole to visit Abberton Reservoir, just south of Colchester in Essex. This large reservoir is one of the best sites in SE England for winter birds and rarely provides a disappointing days birdwatching.

The weather was wet and windy, but since we were mainly in search of waterbirds we felt that, despite the weather, it was worth visiting.

We Started on the Layer Breton Causeway, one of two which crosses the reservoir. A Red Kite circled overhead and I soon located a drake Smew at the far end of the reservoir. This duck is increasingly becoming rare in England as our winters get warmer, so it was lovely to see one. In fact through the telescope we could see that there were 3 drakes.

Nicole found a drake Red-Crested Pochard amongst the 100s of duck present and then we found a female as well. This is another duck which is a rare sighting in SE England so we were off to a good start.

From Layer Breton we moved on to Billets Farm where a hide overlooks one of the bays of the reservoir. Sometimes this bay can be full of ducks, but on this occasion we found it sparsely populated although there was a small group of Pintail, one of our most attractive ducks, and some Shelduck.

Next onto Layer-de-la-Haye causeway. A Snipe was an unexpected sighting along with a Black-tailed Godwit and 2 drake Goosander. Another birder kindly directed us onto a female Scaup in a flock of Tufted Duck.

Hide Bay was the next stop. There were a lot of Wigeon present here along with a good number of Dunlin. Andrew located a Black-necked Grebe in the bay.

On the peninsular near the visitors centre was a large flock of Fieldfare. It was difficult to estimate how many, as they settled in the bushes and then took flight again, but there were at least 200-300 birds, no doubt attracted by the prolific crop of berries on the bushes.

After lunch at the Visitors centre we made our way back to Layer Breton searching for a group of White-fronted and Bean Geese, which have been wintering in the area. On the way we passed a field which contained a large flock of Egyptian Geese (70-100 at an estimate) and a group of Curlew. At the causeway Andrew located two White-fronted Geese with a flock of Greylag Geese, but the main flock (c30) and the Bean Geese remained elusive.

By now it was begin to rain harder and so we set off back to London. My total for the day was 55 species including some real highlights. One again Abberton had not disappointed.