Flushed

Flushed with yesterday’s birding success, I went off in search of rarities again this morning: my bird alerts had a Red-breasted Merganser and a Scaup joining the long-staying Ferruginous Duck at Draycote Water, and I thought there was a fair chance that I might be able to track down at least a couple of them. Which in the event was what happened, and I’m more than happy with two out of three, especially as I wasn’t convinced by the Scaup report in the first place. It’s not all that easy to tell the difference between a female Scaup and a female Tufted Duck (I’ve embarrassed myself that way more than once), and a bird that better men than me have declared to be a Tuftie/Scaup hybrid has overwintered at Draycote several times now, so I didn’t put much effort into finding this one, beyond checking the Tufted Duck flocks for an unusually big female, which I failed to spot. As for the others, I began, as I usually do at Draycote, by walking along Farborough and Toft Banks as far as the bird hide, but I didn’t find anything especially interesting. Heading back towards the café to eat cake regroup, I saw a chap with a bird scope emerging from the sailing club, so I stopped him and asked his advice, and he very kindly gave me specific directions to the places where he’d seen my other two targets.

The Ferruginous Duck was precisely where my advisor said it was, diving with some Tufties alongside the new water pipes, and was showing beautifully in the strong, low sunshine – as you’ll see if you check out my extra. This eastern European diving duck is a genuinely rare bird in the UK: the BTO states that it has no estimates of UK numbers, my RSPB bird book doesn’t even mention it, and the Wild Guide to Britain’s Birds says there have been fewer than 500 records ever of this species in this country, and that at most ten are found in any given year. It’s very slightly smaller than a Tufted Duck, but its habits are similar, and this drake seemed perfectly happy in the company of two female Tufties. According to the Wild Guide, Tufted x Ferruginous Duck hybrids can occur, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this mature male Fudge Duck is content to live out his life with his adopted flock.

On any other day this rarest of UK ducks would have beaten all other comers to pole position, but today he was pipped by this redhead Red-breasted Merganser. I’d been told that this bird was hanging out with a large group of Goosanders down by the water tower, roughly a 2-mile walk away from the visitor centre and sailing club, but by the time I made it down there the flock had split and dispersed, and there was no sign of my quarry. I waited a while, photographing other things in what by then was exquisite golden light, but eventually I gave up and began walking back towards the car park. Every time I saw some Goosanders though, I checked them through the binoculars, and about half way back along Hensborough Bank I spotted a sawbill that looked just different enough to be interesting. By the time I’d taken some photos and enlarged them I could see that its bill was long and slender, and lacked the turned-down tip of the Goosander’s, and it had no clear white collar or chin patch. The bird was hunting alone along the bank, but my impression was that it was a little smaller than a Goosander, which I’ve since confirmed from the information in my books. Almost the defining characteristic of adult Red-breasted Mergansers (of both sexes) is a long and shaggy crest, and the fact that the crest on this bird is quite short and spiky makes me think that it’s probably a juvenile.

Red-breasted Mergansers are resident in north and west Scotland, north west England, and north Wales. Around 1,600 pairs breed in the UK, nesting on the ground close to sheltered coastal inlets or inland water bodies. The UK’s winter population can rise to over 10,000 birds due to migrants from northern Europe, and they can be seen almost anywhere around our coasts, where they gather in small, sociable flocks. As with the Red-throated Diver I described yesterday (which by this morning had left the Shire), it’s unusual to find one on fresh water inland, so I count myself lucky to have seen them both so close to home.