Smew

With temperatures still below freezing and nearly all freshwater lakes frozen over, any areas of sheltered unfrozen water are seeing large congregations of waterbirds. I stumbled on one such patch of water this morning just outside Copenhagen. It was rammed with birds. Little and Great Crested Grebes, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Mallard, Smew, Goosander, Mute Swan, Cormorant and Coot, alongside Black-headed, Common and Herring Gulls, were all trying to take advantage of the feeding opportunity with a dead immature Mute Swan on the ice testament to the very difficult conditions these birds find themselves in this winter.

I focused on the Smew - a stunning bird that is usually pretty scarce in winter in the UK but is here in good numbers (the count at one site just outside Copenhagen reached 200 earlier this year). On this patch of water there were two splendid drakes with two female "red-heads" in close attendance. I sat down close to the edge of the lake and waited. After a while the birds seemed to get used to me with the Coots first to come close, soon followed by the Goosander, Pochard, Tufted Duck and Little Grebes. After about 15 minutes they all seemed very comfortable with my presence. The grebes were feeding well, managing to catch small fish at regular intervals, with gulls quick to pounce as soon as they surfaced with something edible. In my 60 minutes on site I did not see a gull manage to steal a catch at all.. the grebes simply dived if attacked.

The Smew gradually came closer - first the stunning males, soon followed by the females. I watched them diving, preening and sleeping over the course of the hour and I was lucky enough to get some decent photos. They really are stunning birds.

Photos: drake Smew (first four); and a 'red-head' female