A new Blog post on my website re the December 26th success on two local Waxwings and a drake Smew and Great Northern Diver and Shag at Covenham Reservoir linked below
https://www.grahamcatley.com/blog-1/december-26th-2023-a-white-nun-and-two-waxwings
what an absolute delight to see a drake Smew again after several years and accompanied by a female presumably the two birds that were on the pits last winter when the drake was in first-winter plumage - the light was divine and after some careful fieldwork I managed to get some decent images on a beautiful day
after a redhead Smew briefly last week came across a beautiful drake and the same redhead this morning - same location as two birds a female and a first-year drake looking like a redhead, last winter so pretty safe to assume they are the same two birds given how scarce Smew have become of late - art rather than portrait images from a great distance
With most of the local pits frozen over the gathering on this pit looked almost like the olden days when Pochard and Tufted numbered in the high 100's. At least 110 Goldeneye today and a drake Pintail was a bonus with the 60+ Shoveler. The Smew is clearly a first-winter drake and to complete the patch sawbill year list a female Red-breasted Merganser was on the Humber. A few more waders included 6 Ringed Plovers taking the year's tally to 97 species the highest February count for a few years.
