As the waters of Faversham Creek spilled back into the Swale, the waders began to return to there endless search for food along the freshly exposed margins of the creek. I could see a duck-like bird pulling itself out of the water onto the mud of the far bank, looked very ungainly.
Quickly identified as a Sawbill of sorts, my first thought was a redhead Red-Breasted Merganser, these are often seen on the Swale here in the winter, nearly all my views of these have been fairly distant through a birding scope, so I was quite excited to see one relatively close, something did not look right with my initial identification, Mergansers have a more wild and wispy looking crest around the head.
As it moved back into the water and began fishing it was clearly not a Merganser but a fine looking female Goosander, another duck that I rarely see at close quarters.
I managed to get some relatively close photographs of this Sawbill which I usally only see at Dungeness through the winter months.
I have noticed on the local bird reports, that a second redhead Goosander has also be seen in the last few days on the creek.
It would be nice to see the Red-Breasted Mergansers this close, you never know.
The males are stunningly handsome, every so often we get them dropping in on local waters
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