Nov 5th Sheringham

King Eider

King eiders are one of the most colourful of the world's duck species. The drake, just like most ducks, is the one that bears this bright pallet of colour. His body is a bold black and white. His breast is a splash of salmon pink. But the real showcase is his showy blue-grey head and vibrant red and yellow bill. They breed far up north in the high Arctic Circle from Canada to Norway. During the winter, they occasionally visit British coastlines. For about a week now, one has been hanging around along the coastline of Sheringham. I've been meaning to go see it, so today, I decided to travel up there on my own to do just that.

I left my flat at 8am this morning to wait for the bus to then catch a train to Sheringham. However, the wait ended up taking longer than expected. Half an hour later, the bus finally arrived to pick me and the growing crowd of people, including a few school children, to take us all into the city. Then, at the train station, I found out that the next train to Sheringham was at 9:45am. More waiting around! This time an hour. Not only that, it takes an extra hour to get to Sheringham. I was starting to wonder if it was worth all this hassle to see one duck out on the sea. That's if it was even there still.

What the one I actually saw looked like

By the time I got to the seafront it was 11am. I was about to enter the usual shelter that local sea watchers use, when a couple armed with binoculars and a scope strapped to their backs told me that the bird I was after was being viewed further up the beach by the lifeguard building. I followed the direction I was pointed and I soon found the crowd of twitchers with their battery of scopes all lined up behind the metal railings of the promenade, all of them pointing out to sea. It wasn't long until I found this king eider through my own scope. It was a bit distant to photograph, but I think you can make it out. However, this individual was a bit scruffy in the plumage department as it was an immature drake that's just going through its first eclipse phase. This means that it was not as colourful as most drake king eiders at this time of year. It might not be at its best, but I was pleased to see it all the same. Not only was this the first time I've seen this species in the wild, it also made all that waiting around for transport worth while.

King Eider

Gannet

With the king eider in the bag not long after stepping off the train, I thought it would be silly to head back to the station straight away. I went back to the shelter that I was going to use before the news on the eider's whereabouts broke out and I killed an hour doing what I was going to do originally. Sea watching. With everyone who was here for the duck down the other end of the town's coastline, I had the place pretty much to myself. Scanning the sea, I was able to spot a couple of red-throated divers, some cormorants, several gannets and many gulls of one kind or another. After lunch, that I brought with me, I left the shelter, made a quick second look at the king eider that was still bobbing about on the waves and then went for a search for purple sandpipers on the opposite end of Sheringham. It turned out to be no show on the sandpipers, but I did see several turnstones and one cheeky herring gull investigating the contents of one fishing boat.



Cormorant



Black-headed Gull

Herring Gull

Juvenile Herring Gull having a bath

A reminder of why you should pick up rubbish on the beach

Great Black-backed Gull

Turnstone