Festive walkabout

Early on Christmas day, I drove to Covehithe, going down the lane, 8 Fieldfares flew out of a close bush by the right hand side of the road. Parking at the end, I walked down to Covehithe Broad, an initial look and I failed to see the LT Duck but another scanned revealed with Mallard at the back edge of the northern section of the Broad, then the excellent Long- tailed Duck swam a little closer and at one point flapped its wings but unfortunately not captured on film. Also along the south section of the Broad was a female Goldeneye. A look out to sea revealed a constant stream of Divers flying north, most readily identified as Red- throated Divers with an amazing tally of 3,500+ Red- throated Divers counted (all flying north) in around a 40 minute watch. One ot two candidates looked interesting but were too far out to safely ID. However, on the sea mid distance was a flock of 14 Scoter (13 Common Scoter) swimming on the sea and the white- wing clip revealed a fine Velvet Scoter almongst their number, as if to confirm this, they all flew south with the white in the wings clearly seen on the Velvet. A female Marsh Harrier quartered the reeds at the back of the Broad. I then drove just past Blythburgh and took the first road to Wenhaston, overlooking the field between the village and the A12, initially no sign of the Beans but first 12 Fieldfares and then another 2 Fieldfares flew over my head and inland, but 22 Bean Geese first heard calling and then they flew over my head wheeled around and then settled in the field. When I scoped thenm there were definitely 25 Bean Geese in the field, I wonder where the other 3 had been? A look around the back roads of Benacre village was soon cut short because of flooding, indeed much of Kessingland levels was flooded on a scale I hadn't seen before. A look at Lake Lothing from the railway bridge I spotted the fine female Red- breasted Merganser swimming towards the concrete jetty, I waited until it dived and then ran into prome position on the jetty. But unfortunately a couple walking towards the waters edge pushed it further back and I hid by the wooden groyne but again it didn't surface very closely, it then swam towards the concrete jetty again and then went close to the waters edge I got really close but a thick black cloud meant it was apalling light (ISO 6400) on camera meant no pics (or silhouette only) despite how close I was to the bird, very frustrating, but nevertheless a great birding, but lousy photography day! No sign of either the Dabchick or the Shags! Merry Christmas and Season's greeting to all my readers, lets hope 2021 is a better year, a healthy one for evryone and lots of good birding, wildlife watching and photography!