A second visit to Abberton Reservoir on 20th August was a very different experience from my day there last winter ... on that occasion I day-tripped the site, getting badly held up on the way there and was unable to locate the bird among the five thousand or so Pochards that dived, spun round, flew out of sight and generally made for a bad experience in the biting wind ...
This time I booked overnight accommodation in Colchester ... on arrival the bird was loafing on the eastern shore of the western causeway ...
... with the head in full profile the relatively fine tipped but broad based bill contrasted with Pochard ...
... one of the best distinguishing features from Pochard was the forward sloping border between the dark breast and pale flank ... this border being vertical on Pochard ...
... as the bird turned this feature no longer applied ...
... in all views the almost uniform dark grey bill contrasted with the dark tipped biull of Pochard, the dark lores also showed consistently ...
... depending on attitude the mantle shade was not always strikingly paler ...
... one minor feature was iris colour which was rather a dull red compared with Pochard's bright red iris ...
... here the paler mantle is very much apparent ...
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