8 JANUARY 2026 – ABBERTON RESERVOIR
This was our first birding trip
of the new year and right from the start it seemed from forecasts that we were
going to be fighting the weather - the first part of the day being still
extremely cold, with light winds, drizzle and fog, followed by heavy rain and
strong southwesterlies from about 14.00 hrs. possibly turning wintery by late
afternoon - early evening; all courtesy of storm Goretti. So, we set off from
mine shortly after 08.00 hrs expecting that we’d likely back home by
mid-afternoon.
We had no problems on the road
with traffic, but a detour around Coggeshall, meant that we were forced to
approach Abberton Reservoir from the Layer de la Haye concourse as opposed to
the Layer Breton concourse which was our intended route.
Straight away it was absolutely
apparent that the reservoir south of the road here was almost entirely frozen,
with hardly a bird on it, except for a couple of Great Egrets and a Carrion
Crow, whereas the northern sector was less frozen with isolated groups of
Goosander; Wigeon; Tufted Duck; Teal, with the odd Great Crested Grebe;
Goldeneye and Pochard. There were a couple of Redshank; Black-tailed Godwits,
and Oystercatchers on the eastern bank,
but not much else of note. John picked at least three Red Crested Pochard in
his scope and a couple of distant Bewick’s Swans. But we missed out on Black-necked
and Slavonian Grebes which had been observed in recent days.
On the way round to the Layer
Breton concourse, we looked in at one of the hides at Billet’s Farm, but views
of birds were restricted by fog that seemed to be becoming denser by the
minute. Regrettably, we just missed a Long-tailed Duck, but there wasn’t a
great deal on show here, although once again John came to the rescue with a
singleton Mediterranean Gull and a drake Pintail. A female ring-necked Pheasant;
a flock of about ten Dunlin, and a flyover Golden Plover helped boost our year
lists too.
At Layer Breton virtually the
first bird we latched onto was a stunning drake Smew, a species I hadn’t
seen here for several years, and despite swimming and diving over a wide area,
it kept a reasonable distance from the birders watching it. There was a lot of activity here as it wasn’t
as extensively frozen as from the southern section at Layer de la Haye, but
there were many Mute Swans and Egyptian Geese interspersed with Grey Lags;
Tufted Duck; Wigeon and other duck species, including a Red-head Smew (a
female) which I found near to the left bank, initially ‘hiding’ beneath a
fallen tree and which seemed very reluctant to come out at times. A Eurasian
Buzzard was seen flying over the frozen waters and was something of a surprise.
The southern part of the lake was almost entirely frozen with hardly a bird on
it save for Black-headed and Herring Gulls, and I think at least one Mew
(Common) Gull. But although there were a few Great Egrets, we saw absolutely no
Little Egrets or Cattle Egrets (all of which had bred here); obviously the
conditions were too harsh for them here, and they’d moved out to outlying
fields; streams and rivulets.
After speaking to a fellow
birdwatcher, John discovered that there was a ‘permissible footpath’ nearby where
Tundra Bean Geese and White-fronted Geese had been observed of late, so we made
a beeline for that, almost immediately connecting with a large flock of 80 or
so Egyptian Geese on open fields, and behind them the three Bean Geese. Quite a
bit further along, we connected with a large flock of wary Grey Lags with some Canada
Geese, interspersed with the Whitefronts - where John scoped at least 14, with a
good 100 or so Canada Geese further away. A pair of Stock Doves flew over, and
good numbers of Redwings were seen flying out of Hawthorn bushes that lined the
path.
We returned to Layer de la Haye
concourse - where Mike and I spotted what we initially thought was a second
drake Smew swimming around ice-free areas of water - although we soon
discovered that the drake at Layer Breton was seen to fly north, so was almost
certainly the same bird.
Later, we visited the Visitor
Centre and the bird hides there, without seeing much more of interest due to
the lack of birds on frozen waters, although two more Bewick’s Swans; a
Sparrowhawk; an obliging Green Woodpecker on a wooden fence, and a few small
passerines such as Titmice and Starlings were seen. By this time the whole
reserve was shrouded in a truly dense fog, which virtually obliterated views of
the birds and everything else.
After a welcome Cappuccino we
left for home arriving at mine at 15.00 hrs in extremely dense fog, fortunately without experiencing
the forecast heavy rain and high winds ………….which came after darkness fell.
A ritual that most of us
‘birders’ partake in is keeping a list of birds seen in any one year. Some are
arguably a tad over-zealous in this regard, but I’d like to think that we three
don’t take it that seriously. That said getting our lists off to a good start
for the year is something probably most birders who keep lists adhere to well,
almost religiously - and we are no different.
We achieved up to 32 ‘year ticks’
between us which we all felt was quite an exceptional tally, given the adverse
weather conditions - indeed, none of us could recall seeing so much frozen
water at Abberton previously, and I’m certain that helped us to some degree.
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