WHITLINGHAM: December WeBS count

11th December 2022

I delayed going to Whitlingham for the final WeBS count of the year because of the early morning fog, but by the time I did get to Whitlingham this had gone and it was a bright but cold day. Whilst the cold conditions hadn't brought anything new in, there was a decent range of ducks, including:

• Scaup 2
• Goldeneye 3
• Pochard 3
• Shoveler 4
• Tufted Duck 185
• Gadwall 112
• Teal 13
• Mallard 74
• Coot 140

WHITLINGHAM: More Scaup

2nd January 2017 

I had to nip out to get some shopping, and decided to visit Whitlingham first. The Scaup had been reported from the south-eastern corner of the broad earlier in the day, so I decided to concentrate my time on the area east of the broad. After a bit of scanning I picked out the Scaup, looking a bit further along in moult than when I’d first found it (it now has a much reduced amount of white around the bill, plus a couple of pale areas on the back). Whilst waiting for it to resurface I noticed another Scaup! It took a moment to sink in, but this bird was clearly much further along, with a greenish tinge and over half the back now grey. It also had a big white patch on the flanks. 

At this point Gary walked up from the eastern end of the broad and asked what I was looking at. I said Scaup, but that there was two. He said that there must be, because he had been watching one at the east end. I hadn’t noticed any birds flying in from that part of the broad, and having showed him ‘my’ two, Gary said that the bird he had seen was at a different stage of moult to these ones, so there must have been three separate 1st-winter Scaup present! I didn’t have time to go and look for the third bird, but was quite happy with two. 

 I have put photos up of the two birds I saw – I would be interested to see any photos that people have taken of the Scaup at Whitlingham since Christmas to see whether either of the further along birds were present earlier but mistaken for the original bird. The most likely option would seem to be that the others arrived with the bad weather on 1st Jan or overnight. 

WHITLINGHAM: December wildfowl count & Scaup

18th December 2016 

Justin had texted me on Saturday to wish me good luck with the final WeBS count of the year, a reference to the heavy fog that would have made counting the far edges impossible. Fortunately for me, Sunday was clear and there were no issues with the count. That said, with handover of our rented house looming and Cathy’s sister visiting from Germany, I had set myself a two-hour limit to get the count completed in. 

The Little Broad was still tricky to view because of the vegetation that has grown up around it, but it didn’t seem as busy as it has on previous occasions, 50 Gadwall being the only count of note. Moving to the Great Broad it was immediately obvious where most of the birds were! Huge numbers of Tufted Ducks and Coot in particular were spread out over the whole broad. Scanning from the west end I was mid-way through counting Tufted Ducks when I spotted a female duck that had more white on around the bill than the rest of the Tufties. A closer look revealed that the white didn’t quite meet in the middle above the bill, so when I went round and looked from a different angle the seed of doubt had been put in my mind. Side-on it looked good for Scaup, but didn’t seem noticeably larger than the Tufted Ducks in front of it. Knowing that I had a big job on to count everything I digiscoped some shots, recorded it as Scaup-like Aythya sp and carried on. At my in-laws I uploaded a photo to Twitter to ask hybird guru Dave Appleton his opinion, and having reviewed my photos and seen feedback from others it was clear that the bird was a ‘pure’ Scaup, presumably a first-winter, hence the brown centre above the bill. So a bit of a cock-up, but a reminder that this was only my third Scaup here in 10 years and fortunately it was still present by the time news went out. 

I carried on around the broad, tallying up the ducks. I don’t actually add up the final number until I get home, so whilst I knew it would be a big number (I had to go onto the next page for both Tufted Ducks and Coot), I hadn’t realised that the Tufted Duck count actually appears to be a new high count for Whitlingham – 384 birds, whilst the 371 Coot is the highest since 2010 as far as I know. It is interesting that despite the winter not being a harsh one, several species are present in markedly higher numbers than in 2015. 

December comparison figures below (2015 in brackets)

• Gadwall 252 (106) 
• Pochard 31 (48) 
• Tufted Duck 384 (198) 
• Coot 371 (261) 

Other birds of note included a drake Wigeon in the conservation area bay but only visible from the south shore, and the female Ferruginous Duck x Pochard hybrid.

NORWICH AREA: Distant Scaup-related fun

19th February 2015

Early in the morning I received a text to say that a possible Lesser Scaup had been seen on Colney GPs*¹ but it had flown off. I assumed that this was the bird reported the previous day as a Greater Scaup*². As the observer who reported the bird as a possible Lesser Scaup is a well respected county birder, I decided to keep an eye on my phone and go down and have a look if I got the chance. A look at my twitter feed revealed a photo from Wednesday's bird. Unfortunately as the photo was digibinned*³ it wasn't completely sharp and the colour of the back was washed out, however the impression was of a round-headed bird, i.e. a Greater Scaup. This was also the impression of the birders who had found it on Wednesday. When an uncropped version of the photo was posted it showed that the bird was similar or maybe slightly larger than a Tufted Duck, but perhaps on the small side for Greater Scaup. It also seemed to show very little black on the bill, which was good because it reduced the likelihood that the bird was a hybrid.

Later in the morning I noticed that the Scaup had been seen again, so I headed out to have a look for myself. I parked up at the southern park car park and walked to Chapel Break, where a small group of local birders (and later some county listers) were scanning from the gateway. The bird was showing (hooray) but very distant (boo). It was initially with a group of 30-ish Tufted Ducks, before breaking away and swimming fractionally closer and eventually out of sight. I stayed for a while after, ideally hoping to see it in flight, but with no sign of it reappearing and rain hampering visibility I headed home.

Given the distance it was difficult to draw too many conclusions. There was nothing that suggested a hybrid origin, so it would seem that the ID is a straightforward Greater/Lesser shootout. The bird looked very similar in size to the Tufted Ducks, the only real pro-Lesser feature noted. I couldn't see a bump at the back of the head, but neither would I have necessarily expected to at that range. Similarly the back looked darker than in the photo, but vermaculations weren't discernible. Likelihood is that the bird was just a small Greater Scaup, but worth checking out, and I'd like to think someone with a permit to the lakes managed to get some better photos, just to be sure.

*¹ Technically Bawburgh Fishing Lakes, but more commonly known as Colney Gravel Pits.
*² In common usage just "Scaup" - The international name 'Greater Scaup' is used here just to clearly separate from Lesser Scaup.
*³ 'Digibinning' is the process of taking a digital photo through binoculars.