Velvet scoter and the scoter flock at Ainsdale

It seemed like perfect conditions for looking through the scoter flock at Ainsdale this morning, with bright sunshine and light winds. The only problem was that high tide was 06:09 with low tide 12:52. Surely that would mean that the birds would be further out? I decided to give it a go though because I remember last year when there was a black scoter off Hoylake, the recommended viewing time there was actually low tide because the scoter didn't really come much closer in at high tide, they more or less stayed in the same position, over the mussel beds I guess, and if you were prepared to walk a mile offshore you could get a lot closer to the birds at low tide. It's the same flock and the same beach really, just that the River Mersey is in between, so presumably the same rules apply? Anyway I decided to give it a go. 

I arrived at Ainsdale at 09:30 and walked out to the edge of the sea and scanned the flock. There were probably about 500 common scoter spread across the sea at reasonably close range, i.e. < 0.5km (1/3 mile). Then there were probably another 500 up to 1km out at sea. Finally there were uncounted hundreds (thousands?) that were just dots in the distance, even on 60x magnification. They were so far out that I pondered for a moment if they were the same birds that I could see distantly from Colwyn Bay last week! And the answer is they probably are part of the same impressive flock, which stretches across the whole of Liverpool Bay.

Fortunately I managed to find a drake velvet scoter with one of the closer flocks. It was close enough to see the white mark behind it's eye and I could see the bill shape and pattern pretty well. Other birds seen today included 6 red-breasted mergansers, 10 great crested grebes and at least 3 red-throated divers.

I stayed until 12:00 following the tide out but unfortunately there was no sign of the recent surf scoter.

Redpolls, Martin Mere

I was pleased to see a flock of six redpolls outside the Janet Kear hide this afternoon, and that turned to delight and amazement when I got home to discover that they were actually new birds for the reserve for me! There's lots of habitat at Martin Mere so I'm sure that I must just have been unobservant in the past, but that brings my Martin Mere total to 196 species! Perhaps I'll make 200 this year!

Common scoter off Fisherman's pier, Old Colwyn

The common scoter flock off the North Wales coast is one of the greatest wildlife spectacles in the UK, yet probably most non-birders, and perhaps even a fair few casual birders, don't even know of it's existence.

Tens of thousands of birds can be present and they are constantly active, often chasing each other around both on the water and in the air. Sometimes hundreds of birds can take to the air at the same time and fly a short distance before dropping down, only for smaller groups to fly up again almost immediately. Rarer species such as surf and velvet scoter are occasionally with them and in 2005 I saw a drake black scoter off Llanfairfechan.

The reason why they are so little known outside the mainstream birding community is that they are usually so distant and viewing is often very difficult. These flocks can be miles offshore, with only the very edges of the flocks visible even through a 60x magnification telescope. To add to the difficulties, the birds are often diving or disappearing behind the swell, and the wind shakes the scope making 60x almost unusable except in perfect weather conditions. Most of the time you need to drop down to a slightly more manageable 30x, but at that magnification most of the birds are little more than black dots.

A small number of birds do come a lot closer inshore but it's only a tiny fraction of what's out there and in my experience the rarer scoter are never with them. Until today (see next post).....

Surf scoter off Fisherman's pier, Old Colwyn

Forty-three years ago I saw my first ever North American surf scoter off Llanfairfechan on the North Wales coast. It was in a flock of about 5000 common scoter and it was a dot, the flock was probably about 1 mile offshore. Since then I've seen maybe 20 other surf scoter off this coast but the views have not improved greatly, they're always a long way out, usually disappearing in the swell as I try to steady my telescope in the buffeting wind. I've always dreamt of seeing one close in. Today it happened. 

I arrived at the promenade at Colwyn Bay to find a fellow birder gesturing to me that I should hurry up and get over to him. I lifted my binoculars and the first bird I saw was a drake surf scoter about 100m offshore, the closest bird. I could hardly believe my eyes, I watched it for about 20 minutes until finally it flew a little further out but was still a decent view by surf scoter standards. 

A little later I was again scanning through the scoter flock and relocated the surf scoter with a second male, but much more distant.

The photos in this post are video grabs and certainly don't do the bird justice. If you watch the video further down you'll see what an amazing bird it is. Wow!

I never thought I'd see the white eye ring of a surf scoter. This is a sighting of my dreams!

Wow again!

Glossy Ibis, Martin Mere

The glossy ibis was back at Martin Mere today and the ring-necked duck was AWOL, but apart from that it it was just the usuals.

Back to the roost

This awesome adult yellow-legged gull roosted at Pennington Flash this evening. I love how clean cut it looks, and look at the size of it compared to the lesser black-back. All of the photos in this post are phonescoped apart from the next one. It was sunset on a very dull day.

This photo was taken on my camera and clearly shows the mantle colour.

Remember, this is a video grab of a bird which was 100m away at sunset on a dull day in January, with a wind speed of about 25mph. However, you can clearly see that the bird has yellow legs! And this is obvious in other parts of the video too, but there's only so many crap photos that even I can post! Just take my word for it that it had yellow legs!

American Wigeon, Penworthham

A 1st winter drake American wigeon has been on the River Ribble at Penwortham, Preston for a few days. I failed to see it on my first visit on Saturday when it was flushed by a boat just a few minutes before I arrived, but today I was more or less straight onto it, and even more amazingly the sun came out for half and hour while I watched it on an otherwise dull day. It's the lefthand bird in these photos.

Ring-necked duck still, Martin Mere

After seeing the American wigeon on the Ribble this morning, I called in at Martin Mere for a few hours where most of the usuals were still present including the drake ring-necked duck.

Black redstart, Horton's Nose

This female type black redstart was at Horton's Nose at the mouth of the River Clwyd at Rhyl today.

Bufflehead, Foryd Bay

There's been a drake bufflehead frequenting the North Wales coast since the beginning of December and finally today I managed to catch up with it. Bufflehead is a North American species and this is, I think, the first record for Wales. 

It was originally found at Point of Ayr near Rhyl while we were in Cyprus but only stayed a day before disappearing for a week and finally being relocated at Foryd Bay just before Christmas. It's a new UK species for me but I've been putting off going until now because I knew that I had a job coming up on Anglesey yesterday so I gambled and decided to stay over in Caernarfon last night in the hope of seeing the bird. 

At first I thought that my cunning plan was going to fail because it hadn't been reported since Saturday and the places it was frequenting at the end of last week required a high tide in order for it to be there and unfortunately both high tides during my visit were in the hours of darkness (18:06 last night and 06:48 today - you couldn't make it up!). 

However, after a couple of hours searching and with the tide receding before my eyes, moving the available open water further and further away, I was at the point where I'd all but given up, when suddenly and with much relief, I spotted the bufflehead on the river on the east side of the bay north of the hide, at a distance of about 800m (half a mile).  

Here's the first photo I took from the hide with the bird 800m away and with the receding tide revealing more mud by the minute. Cleary it's the bufflehead, but not a very satisfactory view, so after watching it for a few minutes I began to wonder what my options were for getting closer. I'd not been to Foryd Bay for years and didn't really know the area, but I looked at a map and noticed that the river came closer to the shore a little further north. It was just possible that the bird might move that way as the tide retreated so I decided to give it a go. I jumped in the car and headed north for about 1.5km. 

Parking is a problem here but eventually I found somewhere and a quick scan of the river revealed the bird almost immediately with a few goldeneye and a drake scaup about 250m away to the south. Jackpot! A short walk from here would get me even closer. Yet even now there was another twist as within a couple of minutes of parking here, an abnormal load escort vehicle pulled up and asked me if I could move another 400m away in order to make room for an approaching articulated lorry transporting a static caravan which was due past in 15 minutes. Doh! You really couldn't make it up!

I had no option but to oblige, but once the lorry had gone past I drove back to my parking spot, checked that the bufflehead was still there and then walked around a rocky bay to an even closer vantage point, where I was now about 150m from the bird .

What a tremendous experience to watch this wonderful duck swimming in amongst displaying goldeneye in the company of a drake scaup. Not as close as I believe it was earlier in its stay when it frequented a saltmarsh pool close to the track at the south west corner of the bay, but this was a very evocative and a thrilling sight and exactly the way I wanted to see the bird.

Edit 23/01/2026: When I saw the bufflehead on 14/01/2026 it hadn't been seen for 4 days previously. At the time of writing it's not been reported again since my sighting. So in the past 13 days mine is the only sighting of the bird! Amazing. 

Siberian chiffchaff, Glazebury WWTW

I called in at Glazebury WWTW this morning hoping to catch up with the Siberian chiffchaff that was reported yesterday. There were several chiffchaffs on the beds and occasionally flying up into the trees, including the bird in the photo which I'm pretty certain is Siberian chiffchaff. 

Call is the most important identification feature and without hearing it, it's virtually impossible to be sure, however this bird is very brown on it's upperparts and buffy below, without any obvious olive on the crown or mantle. Crucially, it has a buff supercilium and rusty looking ear-coverts, as well as very black looking legs. I checked all of these features out in the field as well as in the photos when I got home.

I tried a bit of playback and the bird responded immediately, flying up into the tree near where I was standing, but unfortunately it refused to call itself. After spending about 20 minutes with this bird and satisfying myself that I wasn't likely to get any better photos, I moved about 10m further along the fence and viewed another bed. After another 10 minutes I heard a Siberian chiffchaff calling from the area where I had watched the bird in the photo, but unfortunately I couldn't be sure that it was the same bird so although I'm happy enough that there was a Sibe present, I can't say for sure that it's bird in the photos....if you see what I mean.