This morning, 16th December, I decided to call in on my local patch at Staunton Harold Reservoir, as I often do before heading off to work. The last few days I’ve not been able to visit, due to business commitments and customer appointments. I held out little hope for anything good, as most days its just the usual suspects, a few Great Crested Grebe, Coot, Black-headed Gull and Tufted Duck, in fact many, many mornings this is the norm. I pulled up in the car park as normal, wound down the car window and settled down to start looking through the gulls that were perched on the railings of the water draw-out tower.

Immediately a duck on the water caught my attention. It was large, all dark and asleep, it disappeared behind the tower and out of sight from my position and on the very brief view, I thought, looks like a scoter. I gave it a few minutes and then another tantalising view. So I decided to head round the corner to the dam wall gate and view from there. I scanned and very quickly picked up two obvious sea duck, from their jizz and behaviour, but they were distant, my scope was at home and I only had my bins. I was sure I could see a white wing bar on both birds and when one of the two birds sat up and wing flapped, I was sure they were Velvet Scoter. After a quick phone call to Richard James to let him know, I raced off home to get my scope. I was back in around 10 minutes. Quickly back onto the birds and breathing a sigh of relief that they were still present. Sure enough they were both Velvet Scoter, female types and showing well. I put out the news and shortly afterwards, Richard, Keith and Alan were on site and I had to head off to the office. A new bird for Staunton Harold Reservoir and a rare visitor to Derbyshire, last recorded in the county in October 2014, where a female was found at nearby Foremark Reservoir. I managed a couple of “Phonescoped” images, as record shots of the two birds, the best one is below.

Velvet Scoter – Staunton Harold Reservoir – 16th December 2016 – Tony Davison©

The autumn of 2016 will go down in UK birding history as one, if not, the best periods for the finding of rare asiatic birds in Britain. A continuous stream of mouth watering vagrants seemed to be endless throughout September, October and November. Then just as all the birders thought, that’s the end, a Dusky Thrush appears, in all places, Derbyshire! What’s going on we were all asking ourselves. The bird was identified from photos that were taken and posted on Twitter by a local person, who at first was very wary about putting out the full site details and quite rightly so. Anyway to cut a long story short, the bird was frequenting gardens in the tiny village of Beeley, near Chatsworth, in North East Derbyshire. So it was on the morning of the 5th December, several hundred birders descended on the small village to see this fantastic thrush. The “Twitch” was very well organised and from what I can tell, all birders were very well behaved and respectful of the residents gardens and privacy. A local community centre opened up their back gardens, where the bird was coming down to feed on apples in a small orchard.

Ageing the bird is proving to be rather difficult from what I have been reading on social media, from more experienced birders than me and some that I well respect. Reading the literature it does show features of a first winter and probably a male, due to small white tips to greater coverts, pale fringes and white tips to tertials, rufous brown fringes to the secondaries forming a distinctive rufous brown wing panel and rufous brown to base of tail feathers. However the throat is not a clean white and un-streaked, it appears to be a creamy white and shows fine streaks. I’m not an expert of the ageing of Dusky Thrush, but I would suggest that it is a 1st winter bird, as so often vagrants are, and probably a male based on the rufous wing panel. All about learning!!

A collection was established and the centre put on well wanted Bacon Butties, Chips and Coffee. A fantastic morning and fortunately, the bird performed, albeit for very short periods at a time. Not ideal weather for photos and not as close as I would have liked. I doubt it very much that Dusky Thrush was on any Derbyshire Birders Radar, so an unbelievable county first and my second Dusky Thrush for Britain. It was still present on the 6th December. The Year List is now on 242

Dusky Thrush – First winter – Beeley Village, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire – 5th December 2016 – A record for the county. Tony Davison©

It is looking like this winter will be another Waxwing Year, as many thousands of these beautiful birds have arrived into Britain during the last 6-8 weeks. Most of the big numbers are still located in Scotland and the NE Coastal areas, but smaller flocks have managed to arrive further south in recent weeks. A small flock of 60 birds had been seen in Scarborough during recent days, so this seemed like a good place to visit on Saturday 26th November. Scarborough Harbour is also worth a look during the winter months.

On our arrival there were 35 Waxwings on site and feeding on a Rowan tree right alongside a busy pedestrian area and main road. They seemed totally oblivious to the hustle and bustle of an early Saturday morning in the busy town centre of Scarborough. Despite the awkward place where they were feeding, I managed a few decent pictures. We then visited the harbour area where we had a stunning Great Northern Diver, Red-throated Diver and a Black-necked Grebe. One adult winter Mediterranean Gull was on view at Holbeck, but the weather had closed in by mid-afternoon and it was time to head back home. A very enjoyable day. Year List is now on 240

Scarborough Harbour – Saturday 26th November 2016 – A great place to find divers and grebes in winter – Tony Davison©

Great Northern Diver – immature/first winter – lovely scalloping on the mantle and pale bill indicates an immature bird – Scarborough Harbour, Yorkshire – Tony Davison©

Waxwing – above 6 images – Scarborough, Yorkshire – Tony Davison©

Red-throated Diver – probably a 1st winter – Scarborough Harbour, Yorkshire – Tony Davison© 

Black-necked Grebe – Scarborough Harbour – Tony Davison©

Herring Gull – Scarborough Harbour, Yorkshire – The reflections from the fishing boats were quite superb – Tony Davison©

Turnstone – always plenty of these charismatic waders around the harbour area at Scarborough – Tony Davison©

House Sparrow – male – Scarborough Harbour – Tony Davison©

In recent weeks I have discovered a large concentration of Little Egrets at my local patch, Staunton Harold Reservoir. Up to 20 birds have been present, (3rd largest flock in the Trent Valley so far this year) but there seems to be a consistent flock of around 15 birds sticking together. Fish fry must be easily available for them and the low water level is obviously helping. There are also 15 “Redhead” Goosander present, sometimes feeding with or along side the Egrets. Goosander is quite a rare bird at Staunton Harold, so 15 together is the largest flock here for many years. Several Grey Herons were also showing well this am.

Still good numbers of Grey Lag Geese around and also a pair of Kingfisher are present, several Little Grebe and the first returning Wigeon I Have seen, flew over my head whilst photographing the Egrets, a flock of around 45. My year list for the site is now on 93.

Little Egret – above 7 images – Staunton Harold Reservoir, Derbyshire – Tony Davison©

Grey Heron – above 3 images – Staunton Harold Reservoir, Derbyshire – Tony Davison©