More smews are good news...

The drake is arguably the most beautiful duck seen here, snowy white with thin black lines on the body giving a "cracked ice" effect, and a black mask.

Females and immatures are known as redheads because they have bright red-brown heads contrasting with bright white cheeks, and are seen more frequently.

Five redheads were seen at the Watton Nature Reserve, in East Yorkshire, and three at Swillington Ings, near Leeds, while a drake is back at the Far Ings Nature Reserve, near Barton-Upon-Humber.

Smew, with goosanders and red-breasted mergansers, belong to a family of ducks called sawbills because they have fine jagged "teeth" on the inside edge of their mandibles to help them grip their catches of slippery fish.

They can stay underwater for up to half-a-minute while chasing fish so can be hard to keep track of because they surface a considerable distance away from where they first dived.

Early in the New Year, smews will start the selection of choosing a mate, swimming around each other while the mate displays by drawing his head back in his shoulders before paddling rapidly forwards and pushing his head out again.

Once paired up, they leave here in April and May to return to the remote taiga forests of Scandinavia and Russia, where they will nest in a hole in a tree previously excavated by a black woodpecker.

Gales, heavy rain and floods have brought a number of seabirds far inland, with a first winter grey phalarope on a flooded field at Bradley Ings, near Cononley, North Yorkshire, instead of out in the Atlantic.

A juvenile great northern diver continued to be seen at Angler's Country Park, near Wakefield, while an adult black-throated diver was showing well this week on the main lake at Swillington Ings.

A female long-tailed duck was at Pugney's Country Park, near Wakefield, one of a number seen at inland locations in eight counties.

Rough-legged buzzards continued to be reported across the region while there were more still arriving, with one seen coming in off the sea at Spurn Point on Saturday.

Seawatchers were reporting some little auks and many more were anticipated as the winds grew stronger and turned more northerly.

Great and pomarine skuas, velvet scoters and a balearic shearwater, off Flamborough on Saturday, were among other sightings.

A Pallas's warbler was with a long-tailed tit flock at South Landing, Flamborough, and a firecrest at Castle Hill, Scarborough,while a male desert wheatear was seen in a field near the hide at Long Nab, Burniston.

Inland, a northern wheatear is lingering near Cold Edge Dam, in West Yorkshire.

ACettis's warbler is present at the Old Moor reserve, near Barnsley, while two bearded tits were in the reedbed

at Rother Valley Country Park.

White-winged gulls were starting to be seen in roosts, with an Iceland gull at Wheldrake Ings, near York, and Iceland at glaucous gulls at Swillington Ings.

Waxwings were widespread with the largest single flocks of up to 300 seen in Sheffield and smaller flocks roaming widely, taking advantage of the huge berry crop.

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CW 27/11/10