Initially surveying lake, heard not a dicky bird (9)
I believe the answer is:
sheldrake
'bird' is the definition.
(sheldrake is a kind of bird)
'initially surveying lake heard not a dicky' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'lake' could be 'l' (geographical abbreviation) and 'l' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'heard' is 'hedra' which is present in the remaining letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sheldrake that I've seen before include "Large crested diving duck" , "Diving duck with serrated bill" , "natural swimmer" , "Bird" , "flighty type" .)