Pennington Flash, sea ducks and hirundines

Photo: Two drake scaup.

A hectic morning at the flash as my lonely vigil at the yacht club was constantly interrupted by news of other birds which were being seen in the pouring rain. Two drake common scoter in the middle were joined by two drake scaup, then a family party of Egyptian geese turned up, a curlew flew over, then somebody spotted an odd looking and very pale tern which required attention and finally a curlew flew over heading south. Meanwhile a common sandpiper was on the yacht club shoreline and hundreds of sand martins were landing to take grit off the foreshore. Quite an exciting morning. Then I returned in the afternoon to find that the 1st summer arctic tern from yesterday was back.

The order of events this morning was, first of all two drake common scoter were seen alone in the middle of the flash and then about 30 minutes later these two scaup where seen with the scoter. After a minute or two the scoter and the scaup flew off in opposite directions with the scoter returning to the same spot but the scaup coming closer to the yacht club joining the flock of tufted ducks. About two hours later I noticed that the scaup were swimming towards the scoter again and eventually they joined up with them and swam with them. However the scoter were not happy and very soon flew off which caused the scaup to fly in the opposite direction again. Once again the scoter returned to the same spot and the scaup went into East bay.  I can't explain why the scaup were keen to join up with the scoter. perhaps they recognised the species from their days on the sea.

Photo: Common scoter.

Photo: Egyptian geese.

Interesting that these Egyptian geese have a juvenile with them, I wonder where they are from. I once saw an Egyptian goose with 2000 pink-footed geese on the mosslands near St Helens. Since pink-footed geese commute between Lancashire and Norfolk where Egyptian goose is a feral breeder, I did wonder whether that bird had got caught up with a flock of wild geese and been carried over. Not so sure about the Pennington birds though, I've no idea where the nearest known breeding site is for the species, probably the pond near Bents garden centre!