Duck And Cover

I was out this morning doing my WeBS count at the White Sands area of the Dee Estuary. It is nearly a year since I first started helping out with this task and one that I increasingly enjoy.

June is a quiet month with most of the wildfowl and waders having migrated to their breeding grounds; today only 9 species of water birds were recorded.

Shelduck were the most numerous birds with thousands currently gathering on the estuary prior to their annual moult. A very handsome bird they are too and amongst the 250 on my patch today was a Ruddy Shelduck/Shelduck hybrid that has been in the area for a few years now. The only true wild Ruddy Shelducks I have seen where at Rishikesh in India - a pair powering down the River Ganges.

Also moving into eclipse plumage were forty or so Mallard and a pair of Shoveler. I only managed to pick out the Shoveler when the biting easterly wind forced me to retreat inside a gorse bush in order to steady my telescope!

Not surprisingly there were few waders; 3 Oystercatcher, 2 Curlew and a pair of Redshank the sum total and added to 7 Little Egret, 3 Grey Heron and the above wildfowl, this represented my entire count.

Worryingly I saw just one Common Tern today when I would normally expect to see hundreds commuting to the large breeding colony at Shotton Steelworks. They seem to have completely abandoned the site this year and one can only speculate as to the reason why. I remember a few weeks ago watching 300 to 400 Common Terns plucking food from the exposed sand and mud flats at Connah’s Quay. At the time I assumed the terns were taking advantage of an unexpected food source. Now I suspect it may have been out of desperation due to a lack of their normal food – Whitebait fished from the river.

Until later.