As the first of the autumns Teal start to return to the valley, and
the first evening flights of Mallard and Greylag Geese start to occur, it seems
a suitable time to recap on this summer’s duck breeding
season. Unfortunately, it’s not been a particularly good summer for ducks,
perhaps due to the water coming off the Ings rather quickly during the spring,
and the relatively dry conditions that persisted for much of the summer thereafter. The
number of duck broods seen was well down on last year, which has been reflected
in the numbers caught and ringed – with no Shoveler or Gadwall broods caught this year. The Lower Derwent Valley is one of the few places where British
bred ducklings are caught and ringed, so this year’s rather disappointing
result will affect the national data totals. That said, with natural variations
in weather and seasons, something always tends to fair well on the Ings, and
this year it has been the drier hay meadow communities that have flourished,
and breeding snipe have done well. Hopefully we’ll go on now to have a good
winters duck ringing and will look forward to the appearance of more ducklings
in 2016.
Mallard duckling - Bank Island
Shoveler ducklings - Wheldrake Ings
Tufted Duck duckling - North Duffield
We have also just
received news from our friends at the WWT (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust),
concerning one of the Gadwall ducklings we ringed on the reserve in 2014. In
contrast to this year, 2014 was a bumper season with an impressive 92 pairs of
Gadwall present throughout the reserve – over 200 ducklings were reared and an impressive 41 were caught. This represents the best year’s ringing
totals we’ve managed and with 2014’s national ringing totals having just been
published, the Lower Derwent Valley accounted for 65% of all the Gadwall ringed
in the country during the year. This duckling, FH65612 was ringed at Wheldrake
Ings on the 1st July 2014, and was reported just two weeks ago on
the 1st September 2015 at Ballyronan, Lough Neagh,
Ireland. This is our fourth Gadwall duckling moving west into Ireland and
our third to Lough Neagh. Thanks to our staff and volunteers for all the extra
time and hours they put in to catch ducklings during the summer months – often
involving getting wet, muddy and plagued by horseflies!
Gadwall - North Duffield Carrs
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