Two new ducks...

We started today at Brand's Bay in Poole, in search of the juvenile surf scoter which has been there for several days. This regular trans-Atlantic vagrant breeds in Alaksa and Northern Canada and normally winters off the coast of north USA and on the Great Lakes, but small numbers arrive in Western Europe every winter. Most are adult males, a magnificent black sea duck with a bright orange and white beak and a remarkably shiny white eye. Sadly this one was a juvenile, a far more drab, brown, bird, yet to develop the resplendent beak and eye of its father, and looking rather more similar to its even more drab mother. Well that was what I was expecting...

Juvenile Surf Scoter, Brand's Bay, 23/11/13

We found it almost as soon as we had arrived, swimming rather distantly out in the middle of the bay. Contrary to my expectations, the bird really was stunning, with its distinctive eider-like head and white spot behind the eye. It is amazing to think of it crossing the Atlantic alone in its first year of life. My photograph does not do this magnificent bird justice at all. It was a new species for me, and an excellent one at that to see this side of the Atlantic.

Brand's Bay was teeming with other waterfowl, particularly great crested grebes, brent geese, red-breasted mergansers, wigeon and shelducks, with several pintail and a female goldeneye very close in to the shore also present, along with three grey plovers. As we walked back up to our car, we came across a group of four (!) Dartford warblers flitting about the heather. What a great place!

We then headed towards Portland. At Ferrybridge, there were several hundred brent geese present, as well as a very nice total of 130 Mediterranean gulls. Sadly there was no sign of either of the black brant which winter there each year. The highlight for me was the presence of three knots, my first in Dorset.

Knot with a Mediterranean Gull in the background, Ferrybridge, 23/11/13

Unfortunately a brief check of Portland Harbour resulted in nothing more than several red-breasted mergansers and great crested grebes, and a distant small grebe, most likely a black-necked, so we moved on to Abbotsbury. We hoped to find the wintering scaup there, and eventually a tedious search through a distant large tufted duck and pochard flock, as viewed from the World War II tank traps at the corner of the swannery, resulted in finding three scaup together. This scarce winter visitor to Britain from its breeding grounds in Siberia and north-eastern most Scandinavia was a new species for me, and particularly satisfying as we had missed them last year at the Swannery.

Scaup, Abbotsbury Swannery, 23/11/13

Sadly they were extremely distant (hence the rubbish record shot!) due to the difficulties of viewing birds in the swannery during the winter months when it is closed, and the lack of public access to the fleet side of Chesil Beach, but their clear pale backs stood out from the tufted ducks. It should be getting harder and harder for me to find two new species on one day, but I'm not having any difficulty yet. I hope that continues!

Red-breasted Goose!

On the 31st October, we headed down to Milford-on-sea in Hampshire. Our quarry was a red-breasted goose that had been present with a flock of brent geese in the fields around Sturt Pond for several weeks. This stunningly-colourful small goose breeds in Arctic Siberia and winters around the Black Sea and in Azerbaijan. They are threatened with extinction, following a large decrease in numbers in recent years and increased threats to their breeding and wintering grounds from increasing development. Very small numbers arrive in Britain each year, almost always with flocks of barnacle or brent geese in late Autumn. It has been a bit of a bogey bird for me, and I have tried (and failed!) to see it twice around the Exe Estuary in Devon and at Christchurch Harbour in Dorset, but I was hoping for a fourth time lucky.

We arrived at Milford-on-sea, only to be greeted by the sight of a complete lack of any geese in the fields surrounding Sturt Pond. We decided to continue, towards Hurst Point, hoping to come across a brent goose flock. Finally, we found several brents feeding on some of the grass islands in the Solent next to Hurst Point. Scanning them revealed several wigeon and shelduck, and finally the red-breasted goose! It was feeding with five brent geese about 400 metres away, occasionally showing well, but generally hiding in the long grass. We watched it for about half an hour, before it disappeared into even longer grass, in which we couldn't see. It was a superb new species for me, my fifth BBRC rarity, and certainly one of my favourite species that I have seen in Britain. Nearby were several rock pipits and turnstones, but nothing else of any note.

We then headed to Portland, hoping to find any of the scarcer species that had been seen around Ferrybridge and Chesil Cove in the previous few days. At Ferrybridge, there were several bar-tailed godwits, turnstones, ringed plovers, dunlins, two grey plovers and one sanderling, as well as a single Mediterranean gull. Sadly there was no sign of any brent geese, and thus of my hoped for black brant geese. Chesil Cove was almost completely empty, with just a single Mediterranean gull of any note. Portland Harbour was of far greater interest, with a new species for me found off Portland Castle. It was a winter plumage red-necked grebe, a scarce winter visitor to Britain from Eastern Europe. It would only show for about five seconds at a time, before diving back under, but it was a very pleasing bird to see. There was nothing else of any note in the harbour, so we headed back to Hilfield very content with a great day.