Oct 18th Strumpshaw Fen

Just some of the many ducks I had to count!

I was given the task of counting all the ducks outside Reception Hide today. A task that would drive any normal person quackers (pun intended). With so many constantly moving around at the back of the broad, hidden behind the reedy islands and the channels tucked behind reed beds as well as a mixture of species to sort through, counting all these ducks was no easy task. Once I had managed to tally as many as I could see on the broad, I then had to count any new arrivals flying in or sneaking in from the channels. There were a lot of them!

Mallard

Female Mallard

Gadwall

This survey was originally assigned just to me, but it appears that duck counting is quite an infectious task as my colleague and one of my regulars were soon helping me spot any duck flying in for me. There were flocks of wildfowl in the air everywhere at the far side of the reserve and sometimes in large numbers, but I decided to only focus on the ones that were close enough to see. Before gunshots from the annual gamebird shoot from the nearby fields scared every duck off the broad, I managed to tally up: 223 mallards, 44 wigeon, 41 gadwall, 16 shovelers and 11 teal. That's 335 ducks in total this morning! Now that winter is approaching, I expect to see this total to increase as more wildfowl arrive from across Europe and beyond and hopefully include diving ducks such as pochards and tufted ducks.



Shoveler

Mallard and Wigeon

Marsh Harrier

Also this morning; a kingfisher made a few quick flybys from Reception and Fen hides, a bittern made a long flight around the far side of the reserve but was too distant to photograph, bearded tits teased those seeking for them with plenty of pinging and a few brief glimpses and there were several marsh harriers that were constantly spooking up the ducks and causing me a few headaches while I was trying to count them. At Fen Hide, I also saw three Chinese water deer together grazing on the reed stubble.



Heron




Cormorant

Mute Swan

Chinese Water Deer

Pheasant

Shaggy Inkcap