07/02/17 - Drake delight

Following on from our recent waterfowl catches which have included a number of Pintail, our success with this species continued into last week, with a catch of nine birds at dawn on Monday morning - including six males. Over the last 20 years we’ve only managed to catch and ring a total of 29 of this handsome duck, but since the turn of the year we’ve ringed 30, bringing the overall total suddenly to 59. On Monday morning we were fortunate to have clear blue skies and sunshine which really showed off the drake’s amazing plumage, so many beautiful colours which can be seen in the feather detail photographs below. We’re not sure why this month has suddenly been so successful for Pintail, after so many years of catching just one or two on average – but we’re certainly not complaining! Hopefully there may be yet more to come, with recoveries also. Following a count across the site last week along with records over recent days, numbers have shown to be steadily increasing and are now in the region of 250 birds.