Smew: Living in the North West I don't often get to see drake smew, up here get a couple of redheads turn up on our lakes but its particularly rare to get a stonking male.
So it was good to get the change to catch up with one while I was working away in Tewkesbury this week.
This place was like Fort Knox with 10ft high fencing around the whole perimeter of the lake, barbed-wire and eclectic fencing and the only edge that you can view the lake due to public access has a 6ft high Leylandii hedge!!! Its only fish!
Despite the unwelcoming, locked down conditions of the lake the bird showed pretty well, if a little too far for some decent images.
So here's a few images of a drake smew I took at Slimbridge WWT the same day. In these images you can see their saw like bill and their white crests.
These really are distinctive, dapper little ducks. With their punky head feather crests, black mask and cracked white plumages they really stand out.
