Friday 28 October 2016

FERRUGINOUS DUCK

Dave Bilcock discovered a drake FERRUGINOUS DUCK at WILSTONE RESERVOIR on Tuesday (25th) which was still present today Thursday 27th October (see Dave's shots below). It is frequenting the Drayton Bank, keeping close to the shallow water at the edge and diving, best observed from the car park steps. The fact that it has a bright, pearly-white eye suggests that it is an adult drake. It also represents our first record here since 2002! It puts Ian Williams on an impressive 150 for the year - once again the leading lister within the Tring Reservoirs' boundary.




Overall, there has been a massive arrival of wildfowl at Tring, with some impressive numbers present. For example, click-counting revealed the presence of no fewer than 170 Mallard, 33 Gadwall, 522 Teal, 680 Wigeon, 98 Shoveler, 278 Tufted Duck and a staggering 215 Northern Pochard, while Red-crested Pochard numbers have climbed to 7. Add to that the 26 Mute Swan, 47 Greylag Geese, 5 Little Grebe, 6 Little Egret, 4 PINTAIL, 3 Common Snipe & 2 JACK SNIPE, then plenty to wade through! More and more EUROPEAN GOLDEN PLOVER have been arriving daily, so much so that the flock on the mud has now reached 179 in number, while a single DUNLIN joined them today. Eurasian Skylark have been passing over in small numbers, with up to 4 Grey Wagtails on site. The Common Kingfisher remains.
 

The drake RING-NECKED DUCK has been commuting back & forth to STARTOP'S END RESERVOIR, where also the drake GREATER SCAUP remains. The 17 Great Crested Grebe on there represents the highest count so far this winter

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