Long-tailed Duck and Common Scoter

The Long-tailed Duck that has been at The Mere for several weeks now is slowly moulting into a male. Early sightings were logged as a juvenile first winter bird and here are a couple of my first photos from 3 November 2017:

Here are some from a couple of weeks later on 16 November:

 And finally here are some from last Monday 11 December 2017. There is a pink band developing on the bill, a white patch has appeared on its back and the head is overall much whiter making the dark cheek patch stand out more. All in all it's going to be a lovely male Long-tailed Duck soon.

Developing male Long-tailed Duck

Another duck that has been here for a while now is the Common Scoter. Unfortunately it has not been as accomodating as the LTD and has stayed distant so the photo is not good of this duck. Female/juvenile still undecided as haven't had any good views of its underside yet.

Common Scoter

I flushed 6 Common Snipe from a boggy patch of grassland along the south side of the Mere yesterday and another one this morning from the field near the junior school. Also in the hedgerow was a single Fieldfare. Fieldfare and Redwing have been noticable by their absence this winter.