Lesser Scaup and Jack Snipe

With only the morning available for birding today, we stayed relatively close to home and a trip around the M25 to Staines Reservoir. We arrived shortly after first light and headed through the kissing gate and up the ramp to the causeway. A Lesser Scaup had been reported from this site since the 16th of January, with further reports suggesting the bird had been present since the 20th of December! Several birders were already present and all had their scopes trained on a sizable flock of Pochard. We quickly located the Lesser Scaup among the flock. It was asleep for the majority of the time we were on site, waking briefly to stretch a wing.

Lesser Scaup among Pochard flock

With time limited we cut the visit short and headed back along the M25 and up the A1(M) to Lemsford Springs in Hertfordshire. The reserve was much busier than normal, due to the fact that three Jack Snipe had been showing well from the hide recently. We squeezed into the hide and found one of the Jack Snipe asleep on a small frosty mound of earth. We soon found the other two birds tucked under the front edge of the watercress bed. As well as the Jack Snipe there were fourteen Green Sandpipers, two Common Snipe, as well as Grey Wagtails and Little Egrets present.

Jack Snipe

A short time spent birding today adding a couple of decent year ticks and a new addition to my London list with the Lesser Scaup.