Always optimistic, if it was raining my grandad used to say, “Nice weather for ducks!” And today was definitely a ‘duck day’ at Old Moor!
Here’s the day’s summary of sightings…
One the most elegant ducks that visits the Dearne Valley must surely be the pintail. Long-necked and sporting a trademark tapering tail, these birds are mainly associated with the coast but, at this time of year, they are on the move.
And they obviously keep good time. In fact, on precisely this date last year, Old Moor had a single drake pintail on the Field Pool. So it should have been no surprise to watchers this morning to see these beautiful ducks back; right on time.
Today, it was a pair of pintail that spent the day feeding and resting on the Field Pool. Tending to stick to the margins, they did occasionally venture into the open water and were best seen from Field Pool West Hide.
Also seen there today were near enough the complete range of Old Moor’s winter ducks - gadwall, teal, wigeon, mallard, shoveler and pochard.
It seems grandad was right. Until next time.
True, very elegant! Interesting they are spot on time, given the quite different Winter/Spring so far.