This is the Smews...

What is it with Smews? Or Smew?

Over the years Ive seen plenty of them, harking back 30 years we would get up to 9 on Druridge Bay Country Park that sometimes included one or two males as well as the commoner red headed females. In recent years, as most of my birding time is not near large bodies of fresh water, they have become decidedly scarce for me. I cant even remember the last male I've seen but it might have been the one a lot of years ago on the River Coquet above the Warkworth Wier one fine New Years Day.

This year there seems to be more Smew around so I thought I might try and see a drake if one was available near by.

Getting back to my question, what is it with Smews? They are certainly proving elusive for me this year. When we were in Fife a couple of weeks ago, a drake was wintering on a reservoir not far from us, but not on the day we went. Back home, a redhead has been showing quite well on the QE2 Lake near Ashington. I drive past the car park every day I am in the office, technically I might have been able to see the bird from the car as I went past but didnt, so last week I called in on two mornings.  Not a sniff, so when a drake was reported as showing well at East Chevington the other day, it was an offer I couldn't refuse, after all this is a big water body that holds a lot of wildfowl, why would it move on?

Yesterday I parked at the south end of Hadston T junction road and walked in to Chev from the North. At the centrally positioned L shaped hide I met Mark Eaton with Sam and Rosie ( golden retrievers). Mark had been here a while and yes you guessed it, the white nun had done a bunk!

I gave it half an hour to scan around. Of note were 2 Otters, 4 Red breasted Mergansers and a dozen or more Goldeneye with a Cetti's Warbler singing in the background.

On my walk back to the car, I did a short detour into DBCP for a scan in case it had flown on to this traditional site for them, but it wasn't there. A few more Red breasted Mergansers, Tufted Ducks and Gadwall were all I could see with a Willow Tit calling away in the car park.

I hear the redhead is still on QE2, so might have a look on my way to work on Friday. See if I can make it 5 unsuccessful attempts in a month... 

 

Above -Successful Smews from the past...

Smeeoow.

A sunny clear and bitterly cold calm day. Lovely.

A day out today. Well half a day down to Cresswell for a chat with the lads. I think its my first visit down there this year. The water level was high in the pond but there were still a lot of birds on show. Best of all was the female Smew that has wintered here for a few years now. Not one I'll get at Boulmer very easily...

Also on the pond were a pair of Scaup, good numbers of common wildfowl such as Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Mallard, Tufted Duck and Goldeneye. 1 Red breasted Merganser, 2 Shoveler, 8+ Little Grebe and a Whooper Swan added to the interest. 2 male Ruffs were with Redshank on the spit.

2000+ Pink footed Geese with a few Canadas and Greylags were on the fields north of the pond. I picked out a White fronted Goose amongst them, a good year tick for the lads until it stood up revealing itself to be just another Pink foot wearing a good white blaze! There were two birds like this making an easy pitfall for the unwary.

As we left, a tight ball of Starlings up the dunes at Bell's indicated the presence of a predator and we briefly picked up a Peregrine gliding to the ground with one hapless victim.

No visit to Boulmer today, I needed a break.