Ice ducks

I should complain about the weather more often as today was a lovely, sunny and calm, although rather cold day as the temperature had dropped to minus 3 degrees overnight.  I thus donned my thermals and spent a couple of hours around the Spuikom in Ostend.  This brackish, man-made lake is linked to the harbour via a system of sluices and a great place for wintering wildfowl.  All five of the European species of grebes were there today; a single Red-necked feeding near the sluices, a very distant Slavonian way out on the centre of the lake it took me an hour and a half to find, a dozen or so Black-necked, plus lots of Great Crested and Little Grebes.  I didn't bother counting the latter two species, turning my attention to the 130+ Cormorants instead, but other birders with more patience tallied 123 Great Crested and 101 Little!  As if the five grebes together weren't incentive enough, there were also several uncommon ducks I don't get to see each year.  Best of all were the three Long-tailed Ducks (or ice ducks as they're called in Dutch) but the supporting cast included 4 Scaup, a female Red-breasted Merganser, at least 20 Goldeneye, and a single, immature Velvet Scoter.