I've seen several king eider over the years, but all miles away in Northern Scotland, so the opportunity to see one relatively close to home in mid Wales, albeit a female, was too tempting to resist. However somehow resist it we did for three months, before finally yesterday we succumbed and headed to Ynyslas, on the opposite side of the river Dyfi to Aberdyfi. The bird hadn't been reported since the end of September and was thought to have gone, but on Thursday it was surprisingly reported again giving us an unexpected reprieve.
On the way there I suddenly realised that I wasn't sure if the bird was tidal and worse still I had no idea what time the high tide was. However fortunately when we arrived at 10:30 we found an incoming tide due to reach its peak at 13:30.
It certainly appeared to be tidal, there were plenty of birds around, several species of wader, shelduck, 50 or so wigeon and a red kite over, whilst on the sea there were red-throated divers and common scoter, but no sign of the star bird. However right on cue, at about 12:30 we spotted a single eider slowly making its way into the mouth of the river Leri. This surely had to be the bird, since we hadn't seen another Eider up to that point!
Sure enough it was the female king eider. It swam along the edge of a rapidly disappearing sand bank, occasionally hauling itself out and once even attempting a kip, which never seemed feasible to me given the speed of the advancing tide, before finally swimming onto our side of the river and starting to feed.
It always amazes me when I watch these types of ducks feeding. I once watched an inland velvet scoter at close range devour mussel after mussel, swallowing them whole before immediately diving again for more, and it just makes me wonder how they fit them all in. I realise of course that they crush the molluscs in their gizzard, but still they must have a stomach full of shell. This king eider not only ate mussels, we also watched it eat quite a large looking crab!
The bird was first found at Aberaeron, some 25 miles to the south of Ynyslas, where it was initially misidentified as a common eider. Although females are clearly not a patch on the spectacular males, this is still a king eider and perhaps surprisingly, only the second ever in Wales, so well worth a look. The fact that it is a female makes it more of an id challenge which is also a good reason to check it out. It's been in the area for nearly five months, perhaps it will stick around for the rest of the winter.
Year 2017: 254 (King Eider)
Phonescoped photos tend to be paler, more washed out and not as sharp as those I take with my bridge camera, but sometimes they are the only option if the bird is distant as is often the case at the Pennington Flash gull roost for example. I like this photo because it shows well the bill profile and the sails on the birds back.
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