After the presence of a pair of smew on Thursday 30th January, a redhead appeared on silt lagoon 7 on Wednesday last week and stayed at least until Friday. Smew are less than annual at Langford, with no reports last winter and the current redhead only being about the 8th-9th record for the site.
They are without doubt stunning little birds. The males are bright white with black markings, whilst the females live up to their name of redhead, with a rich chestnut coloured forehead, crown and nape, extending down the back of the neck.
The scientific name Mergellus albellus comes from the Latin meaning ‘little white merganser’ and along with the red-breasted merganser and goosander are representatives of a group known as ‘sawbills’. They have serrated edges to their mandibles enabling them to grip fish – their main food items.
Smew breed in boreal forests of northern Europe and Asia, nesting in holes in trees. The majority of the population winters in areas further east of the UK, such as the Low Countries and around the coasts of the Black and Baltic Seas. However, some do reach our shores every winter.
At Langford, look for them on the silt lagoons – they have been seen this winter and in previous winters on all the lagoons alongside the public footpath.
Smew - male and female. Mike Langman (rspb-images.com)