Get the Scoters out there's an Otter!

Hi readers, yes as usual today was spent birding, this week however Sandwell Valley was not on the agenda, I did ask whether the hide was open via Twitter but received no reply so assumed due to all the work going on on the main island that it was not open. With news breaking out yesterday of a Velvet Scoter being seen at Aqualate Mere we decided to get over there and have a shot at seeing the bird.

On arrival we began walking to the hide, where we were met by a load of Cows who I have to admit looked very intimidating, on dragged its foot on the flour which had me worried for a moment. Anyway soon after our slow walk through the Cows we arrived at the hide, and things were at first looking bad. All the Ducks and Coots had grouped very closely together on the far side on the pool, and for me this meant I could barely see them. The main reason they were so far away was that there were three fishing boats on the lake pushing them back. 

So we decided to sit it out and see if things changed within an hour or so. While waiting I decided to do a scan of the water, and happened to see what originally looked like a dog on the water, but on closer observation I realised it was an Otter and my first one to, other birders in the hide saw the animal  and were surprised to see it also. What made it even better is that it was a quite large dog Otter and I got the chance to see one in all it's glory. 

After the Otter we continued waiting, but the only bird that had turned up was a female Common Scoter which was quite far away and offered bad views for me anyway. Around ten minutes after the Common Scoter made an appearance one of the fishing boats moved towards the ducks and coots flushing them and forcing them all into the air, which may seem to be a bad thing but it did help us a 

lot eventually. We began scanning the now landing ducks to see if the Velvet Scoter had landed with them, it took a while but one of the birders got onto it, the bad thing was that it was sleeping which made it even harder to spot. 

But after some detailed instructions on the birds location from other birders, I saw the bird at first with its head tucked in, then I managed to loose the bird, and then I got back onto it. The bird eventually moved to the front of the ducks and lifted its head up allowing us the see the bird in all it's glory. I have to say I was worried we wouldn't see it at first but luckily we eventually got the bird. Here's the main sightings from the mornings visit, 

Aqualate Mere- Velvet Scoter x1, Common Scoter x1, Pintail x1, Wigeon 30+, Coot 2000+, Mute Swan 20+, Otter x1, Tufted Duck 20+, Teal 10+. 

So with a very successful morning in the bag we decided to do some Chasewater Gulling which turned out to be partly successful. The only rarer Gull we got to see was an adult Caspian Gull which turned up and then disapeared early on in the roost, otherwise we saw mainly the commoner Gulls but I have seen that other rare species turned up at some point but we managed to miss them. There's is 

Title to say about our visit to Chasewater today other than we stood and watched a mass of Gulls for a while, a couple of Yellow Legged Gulls were around but the main highlight was the Caspian Gull. Here's the main sightings from the evening, 

Chasewater Reservoir- Caspian Gull x1, Yellow Legged Gull x2, Greater Black backed Gull (multiple), Lesser Black backed Gull (hundreds), Herring Gull (hundreds), Black Headed Gull 1000+, Goldeneye 5+, Goosander x6, Great Crested Grebe 5+. 

So a bad day of birding and a great end to a brilliant weekends birding, there should be a post next weekend as usual I shall notify you if there will not be most likely on Twitter. It should be a visit to Sandwell Valley. 

Thanks for reading and enjoy the week all- WMBB