24/01/2020 Scaup - finally!

Friday 24 January 2020
Combe Haven, Hastings, East Sussex

Scaup is one of those species that tend to get under my radar so I hadn't seen one for a year or two.  Thankfully a drake and 3 females had been seen in the nearby Hastings area and it was a no brainer for me to go down and have a good look.

• I tried yesterday afternoon but failed miserably - I couldn't even find the pools where the birds were!  Coombe Haven Country Park was a new venue for me and I took it for granted that all I had to do was turn up and walk to the pools.  Not so - this is quite a difficult site to get round and by the time I got on the correct path it was getting late so I abandoned ship and went home, disgusted with myself for being so casual.
• Thanks to an excellent reference on Facebook from Jake Gearty I was able to plan my route for today. I was there bright and early but the birds weren't!  Try as I may I could not find the scaup nor any tufted ducks that they would normally associate with.  There were lots of lovely pintails, coots, wigeon, teal etc but no scaup. 

• Around mid-day I checked on RBA and they had moved to a pool north of the A2690.  On Twitter I learnt that it had been posted by Matt Eade so I texted him for the grid reference.

• 20 minutes later and I was finally watching the beauties, exactly where Matt had said.  They were idling away in the middle of the water completely oblivious to all that was going on around them.

courtesy of Matt Eade and Twitter



My toughest twitch so far this year but well worth the effort!