The Juvenile Birder

Winter Waterfowl! We arrived at Swine Moor at around 7:40am, with Dave, in hopes of spotting two Snow Geese roosting with the Pink-footed Geese. Once we made our way onto the very windy and exposed bank, we scanned the wetland, only to find all the geese had already left their roost and flown off. Disappointed, we waited around for a while, spotting a few Greylag Geese flying in along with five white Domestic Greylag Geese . Eventually, we gave up and decided to head over to Tophill Low NR. As soon as we arrived at Tophill Low, we made our way over to the main hide and started scanning through the thousands of ducks. It wasn't long until we spotted our first target, a pair of Red-crested Pochards , which were quite close to the hide in amongst a large flock of mixed Aythya ducks. Further out on the reservoir, we spotted many Shovelers , Pochards , Gadwalls , Wigeons , Tufted Ducks , Goldeneyes , Coots , Teals , Great Crested Grebes  & Mallards . We then moved on to ...

The Only Way Was Essex Image by Kristian Wade We set off at 2.00am and took Carl and Kristian with us. We arrived at Heybridge at around 7:00am. We walked towards a silhouette of birders all crowded round the sluice. I managed to squeeze through the crowd and get a front row seat. I waited patiently with the others in absolute silence. Suddenly, the bird came into view. At first, I couldn't spot it, but thankfully a kind man helped me get onto the Northern Waterthrush . I was delighted with my   point blank views of. Unfortunately my camera wasn't choosing to work at this golden moment. I also didn't have my scope on me, so I was unable to get any images of the bird. Nevertheless, I managed to get amazing views of the bird at close range. Satisfied with our views, we then headed off to Abberton Reservoir. We arrived at Abberton at around 9.00aam. We scanned both sides of Layer Breton Causeway first, seeing a few Egyptian Geese , Shoveler & Goldeneye , but not much else....

Scarcities in Scotland We arrived at Slamannan at around 10:00am in hopes of seeing the wintering flock of Taiga Bean Geese. As soon as we arrived, while driving, we noticed a flock of around 40 Taiga Bean Geese  in a field north of Shortrig Farm. They were quite distant, so I patiently waited for them to come out into view! After a bit of time I managed to get some digiscoped images of them and with loads of light left, set off to Broadwood Loch. We arrived at Broadwood Loch at around 11:00am in hopes of seeing my first drake Smew. Immediately, we noticed a lot of common waterfowl, like Canada Geese , Mute Swan and Coot , but there were also lots of Tufted Duck , Goldeneye  & Goosander  as well as some distant Wigeon . After a bit of scanning, we spotted the drake Smew  far out. We got some images of it and then left, on a high, to Newshot Island in hopes of seeing another scarce bird. We arrived at Newshot NR at around 12:00pm in hopes of seeing an American Wig...