The Gadwall is not really 'esturine'. It seeks still, fresh waters and takes a lot of freshwater material, especially pondweeds. Plant material gathered from just beneath surface, mainly with the head a little under water. Gadwall feed sparingly on land. In late winter may take more seed, then can be found at feeders on the game farms. An interesting behaviour is their routine bullying of Coot. Find somewhere favoured by Coot, you will find Gadwall stealing their food.
Numbers are generally steady through the winter. Single figure counts at individual sites are the norm, though find the safe night loafing site and you can get 20 or so birds together pre-dawn. Another species more common the further east on the estuary you are (the main loafing zones and flightlines are shown in yellow)..
Below the high water mark each winter one or two Gadwall might latch on to Mallard and, when loafing birds are put up, follow them. This leads to one or two being seen out around Nor or Folly Point, and flighting between Bayford and Greenborough.
From personal experience, the present five year average peak from WeBS totals of 45 underestimates the true total, thanks mainly to their skulking behaviour during the time of day most counts take place.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I've been told not all comments are publishing. There seems to be a problem between Blogger and Chrome, and I'm being told if you have a problem you should try a different search engine.
All a pain in the proverbial. Sorry! I'm a luddite/technophobe (still won't even have a mobile phone) so much else is beyond me..
If still doesn't work, pls send me a DM/post to my twitter a/c @dunnokev to let me know- thanks! Kev 18/12/21