Duck Soup ingredients- (iii) a sieve of Teal

Teal have a specialised technique for sieving and need just a thin layer of water over their feeding ground- why when on the flats they are nearly always found at the water's edge along the creeks.
The most usual feeding method is walking slowly in shallow water, filtering as goes.

The first returning birds in late summer often stick to the flats but start to use inland flashes and shallow pools in autumn where new flooding lifts dropped seed. Esturine feeding more reliable- nowhere is rainfall guaranteed. Spikerushes and Crowfoots are most favoured.

Teal have a lengthy autumn migration, between late June to November. Once settled, birds remain, unless prolonged freezing stops them from feeding in favoured shallow waters. We might then see westward influxes from the near continent, or see 'our' birds move south. If they do leave, they do not return, remaining instead in their new quarters until spring migration from late February onwards. Generally, the peak is December, prior to the majority of cold-weather departures.

As well as the obvious offshore loafing areas (although if you count, often many will be feeding), Teal are very happy in deeper cover, including scrubby reed beds. Motney sewage farm and Motney reed bed, Horsham andOtterham is a good example of a large core zone. Pre-dawn, large numbers will be feeding in the creek and on the marsh. By an hour or so after dawn, many of the birds will have flighted to cover, favouring the sewage farm especially.

The following map shows their main mid-winter concentrations.

From personal experience, the present five year average peak from WeBS totals of  1,563 is an under-estimate of actual numbers present. Early morning counts of loafing areas, before numbers retreat to dense cover, routinely pass this total for just the southern shore through much of the winter. Any counts from birders out early in the day would prove useful data.