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


 
No comments:
Post a Comment