Surf scoter( Wrabness )

With it only being an hour from home it's about time that we made the effort to head to Bradfield for the Surf scoter.

We park up at the side of the road & take the track down Shore lane, Lot's of mud & water as we walk down to the estuary.

A scan of the estuary gets us some Grebes & Avocet,Grey plover,Ringed-plover,many Dunlin & Lapwing a few Oyster catcher plus some Mergansers but the Scoter is not showing, so after giving it some time the cold weather gets to us & we decide to head to Wrabness for another look further round the estuary,after parking in the reserve car park we head down  the  path to the hide.

A couple of fellows that we see from time to time are here but  did not have the Scoter.

Within minutes Brian gets us all onto it for a nice year tick for us & a lifer for one of the other fellows, no sign of Little stint that had been reported as here.

On the way back to the car we get a tick when we see at least 4 Bullfinches.
Off now to Abberton & from Layer Breton causeway Jimmy gets us onto a Bittern & it drops down into the edge of the reeds to give a nice long view of it. Also 3 Smew 2 of them Drakes show at a distance, a few Goldeneye are spotted, on one of the Islands many Snipe are tucked into the bank.
Greylag Geese are everywhere but we don't pick out the 5 White-fronted that had been seen while we had been over at the other Causeway. The boys picked out a Sparrowhawk for a tick but I had to wait till the journey home to get one for my tick.
Only a short trip on a freezing morning gets 3 more ticks & back home nice & early.

The only time the camera came out today.

Goldeneye