'king Hell!

King Eider, Eccles-on-Sea, Oct 28 2018, P.J.Heath, T.E.Allwood & A.J.Kane

The Eccles King Eider, seen off Sheringham in early November, R Bleasby.

It was a bright and blustery late October morning and Andy I were seawatching from the usual sheltered spot at Eccles while Phil was watching from a few hundred yards to the south near the ringing station. It had been a fair morning but nothing to get too excited about and not as impressive as the previous couple of days of wildfowl movement. I was thinking about shooting off home as I had some editing work to do on a medical paper and then trying later on in the afternoon.

Plans changed around 10:25 when Phil called with “I think there’s a King Eider not too far offshore, you should be able to see it from there”. That was enough to get us super focussed! Scopes were swung round and I jumped out of the hollow for a bit of extra visibility. Very quickly I got onto a duck to the south. The light was shocking and it was essentially just a silhouette. We both grilled it but a conclusive identification was impossible. The only detail I could get on the thing was a slice of white down the top of the flank area. Immensely frustrating. We kept on it – it was very slowly drifting our way – but the viewing was still horrendous. We gave Mick at Mundesley a heads up and then a quick discussion ensued ending with us deciding that the only option was to move the few hundred yards down to where Phil was sitting to access the better lighting. I had my flotation suit on so it was a bit of pain to move quickly, however, it was only a minute or two before we were met Phil and resumed viewing.

Artwork by Chris Orgill

The King Eider was very quickly picked up, only just behind the top reef. The light here was excellent as we were now almost south of the bird and looking to the north. The water was a lovely dark greeny-blue and this also helped to see the bird in excellent detail. It was a second calendar year male, quite large and chunky-looking, basically dark along the back and flanks and paler grey-brown on the neck, throat and head, with an even paler breast. The white I could see “along the flank” was actually the edge of the white wing coverts and it was even more obvious at much closer range. The head was distinct, with an orangey-yellow frontal shield above a pinky-toned bill. A whitish eye surround gave it an almost comical look at times. We enjoyed this remarkable occurrence for about 45 minutes with the bird still slowly drifting north, during which a very few people had managed to get to the location and see the bird. It made a couple of short hops, before lifting up and flying off north towards Mundesley, where Mick Fiszer picked it up 45 mins later.

King Eider, a few days later at Sheringham, Nov 2018, Ian B.

In flight the stocky build was more apparent. The underparts were solid black with a small area of white at the rear, somewhat similar to the pale yellow on the rear of a Teal. The wings appeared dark but with a clear white wing covert patch standing out. The neck was short and thick and the head was very “blocky”.

The bird was relocated at Sheringham and stayed a few weeks, though it always seemed to be more distant than when at Eccles. This was the first record for TG42 and only the fifth county record since the turn of the 20^th Century. There two records pre-1900.

A phenomenal day. I never cease to be amazed at what can turn up in this fantastic part of the world. I used to dream of seeing King Eider but always envisaged it would involve a trip to the Ythan Estuary or Arctic Norway, but definitely not encountering one on a seawatch close to home!

Artwork by Chris Orgill