Where are they now?

At this time of year, quite rightly we focus on the migrants as they begin to arrive, swallow, nightingales and of course cuckoo. Much has been written about their arrival and eventual departure.

We also think a lot of winter migrants like Redwing and Fieildfare etc.

Looking back to a blog in February for Cliffe and Northward Hill, widgeon, gadwall, goldeneye and pintail were very much on the literary menu. Today they are conspicuous by their absence! So where are they now?

Well the answer as with anything in nature is not thart simple, take goldeneye as an example. Ring recoveries of birds emanating from the Thames Estuary indicate they breed in north or Central Sweden, but as a rule they fly in FebruaryMarch to suitable sites in the upper Scandinavian area. Favourable spots are wooded waterways.

The wigeon is one of the best-known ducks in northern Euroe and one of the most numerous on the North Kent Marshes especially Northward Hill. The characteristic, far-carrying whistle of the male is a familiar sound to the birdwatcher and large flocks are a common sight on most British estuaries. But what of our ducks, assuming they are not one of the 60,000 shot in the UK annually, making it the third most killed species!!!

In truth they breed across the whole of northern Europe from northern Britain to northern Scaninavia and as far as northern Russia to the Bering Sea

What of the Gadwall, the bird that made me think about this subject when I read in my 1962 Observer's Book it described as 'a scarce winter visitor'. As a Wetland Bird Surveyor for some years now I would descibe it as a fairly common winter visitor to the marshes.

This is borne out by the BTO Migration Atlas which describes since 2000, a breeding population increase of 5% per annum and a wintering increase of an amazing 15%, so no longer a scarce resident!

Where however is it's usual breeding grounds, over most of Europe it appears, with a third to a half  originating from eastern Europe (including the Czech Republic and Baltic States).

So last but not least the Pintail, a beautifully elegant dabbling duck and one of my favourites, as handsome a duck as you will find in the UK. Breeding widely over northern temperate and arctic zones, extending further north than any dabbling duck and wintering south through the temperate zone to the tropics, almost reaching the equator in Africa.

Having written about what isn't here this week here's a list of what is at Northward Hill today. shoveller, tufted ducks, mallards, avocet, coots, teals, oystercatcher, greylag and canada geese, little grebes, redshanks, blackcaps, chiff chaffs, cetti's warblers and reed warblers. Blue titts, great tits, lesser whitethroats, swallows, lapwing, mediteranean gulls, cuckoo, grey heron, little egret, mute swan, pochards, common whitethroatst, greenfinches and chaffinch, wood pigeon and collared doves.