anser2 Posted May 7, 2016 Report Share Posted May 7, 2016 (edited) I did a bird survey on a 100 acre N Norfolk marsh this morning and never saw a single duckling. However there were 28 drake mallards present loafing about the pools in singles and up to three femails suggesting a lot of female mallards have gone down on a second clutch.There was a female mallard continualy circling a small copse as though she had been disturbed off a nest and a single female flew onto the main pool acting like a broody hen when ever a drake came near her so again I suspect she has just come off a nest. Single loafing shoveller and gadwall drakes suggested they had a sitting female close by. I did see the first brood of greylag goslings though (4). Edited May 8, 2016 by anser2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiler23 Posted May 7, 2016 Report Share Posted May 7, 2016 A mate of mine is checking the local waters and were getting good few clutches of goslings popping up now.. Think he seen 1 set of ducklings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black powder gunner Posted May 8, 2016 Report Share Posted May 8, 2016 Last night I went to do a hog roast a for birthday party on kings snaith which is in the centre of York on the river ouse near Stgeorges field car park . I was amazed at how many greylag goslings there was I had ten minutes to wait so set on to count them got to over a hundred and lost count. People were passing by and the geese did not bother when I left I had to shoo them out of the way.They ranged from a week old to eight weeks old what was unusual was there was at least twenty Canada geese there but they all appeared to be barren and never saw any of there goslings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted May 9, 2016 Report Share Posted May 9, 2016 Candas may of had their eggs pricked/oiled. As they are on GL this can be done Last night I went to do a hog roast a for birthday party on kings snaith which is in the centre of York on the river ouse near Stgeorges field car park . I was amazed at how many greylag goslings there was I had ten minutes to wait so set on to count them got to over a hundred and lost count. People were passing by and the geese did not bother when I left I had to shoo them out of the way.They ranged from a week old to eight weeks old what was unusual was there was at least twenty Canada geese there but they all appeared to be barren and never saw any of there goslings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted May 9, 2016 Report Share Posted May 9, 2016 Geese are 3 years old before they are old enough to breed so your candas may have been non breeders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent Posted May 9, 2016 Report Share Posted May 9, 2016 Geese are 3 years old before they are old enough to breed so your candas may have been non breeders. Quite right and the very reason they shouldn't be general licence at all. Annual counts for succession can only be wrong without age ( impossible) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony G Posted May 10, 2016 Report Share Posted May 10, 2016 There was 3 broods of Canada goslings on a tiny pond next to the skeet layout when I was clay shooting on Sunday ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salop Matt Posted May 10, 2016 Report Share Posted May 10, 2016 We have wildfowl on our pond breeding for the first time, so far we have: 1 mallard nest 2 tufted nests 1 canada goose nest 1 teal nest I hope the water level stays up as the pond is only small and it would be nice to see more drawn to the pond. ATB Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TONY R Posted May 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2016 Just started seeing a few little duckings about again , gadwall seem to be most common . But guess what weather set to get bad at the weekend looks to be cooler through next week. Hope this next lot dont get wiped out. Old guy up the lane says the gulf stream as moved Duno about that but weather is anoying this year so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m greeny Posted May 13, 2016 Report Share Posted May 13, 2016 Was down one of our local waters feeding the fowl when out of no where a crow swooped down and took a 3 week old gosling and ripped it to shreds and devoured it in no time at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TONY R Posted May 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2016 You have to kill crows etc every chance you get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m greeny Posted May 13, 2016 Report Share Posted May 13, 2016 You have to kill crows etc every chance you get. Trust me i do no matter how young or old they are Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guttersnipe Posted May 18, 2016 Report Share Posted May 18, 2016 Bit of good news, we put 20 nest tubes out at the end of the season and despite reading all the literature, expecting them to be ignored first year we have 11 clutches in them, the first of which are just hatching. Early clutches are collected from ground nest-boxes and tubes, to encourage a second more feasible brood, then incubated, brought on and released in July but with very limited success this year compared to previous - probably the cold spring. Gulls and Crows are our biggest issues, the ladder and larson traps are working overtime with good numbers, just need a solution for the gulls.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nic Posted May 19, 2016 Report Share Posted May 19, 2016 our club has its 60th anniversary this year and we are hoping to get 60 duck tubes out at various locations to help celebrate it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
figgy Posted May 24, 2016 Report Share Posted May 24, 2016 Seen a fair few clutches of gees on my local marshes and wetland areas. No duckling though yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ttfjlc Posted May 25, 2016 Report Share Posted May 25, 2016 (edited) A couple of weeks ago I saw a hen mallard by the side of the road with around 8 ducklings, I had to stop as she was wondering around all over the place but eventually she saw sense and headed back towards the river. Edited May 25, 2016 by Ttfjlc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiler23 Posted June 9, 2016 Report Share Posted June 9, 2016 Any updates on young fellas? How's the population boom in your areas, we've got a good few broods of greylag to add to the small population that we gave locally Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 (edited) On the Norfolk Coast we are getting a few mallard and shoveller ducklings showing now with most gadwall and tufted still sitting. Older broods of mallard are nothing exicting averaging 3-4 for 3-4 week old ducklings. Saw no older ducklings yesterday. One shielduck had 16 youngsters last week , but down to just 3 yesterday after the cold weather we have been having over the last 10 days. The weathermen keep saying its going to warm up and on a few days it does for a short time , but by late afternoon its cold again with north winds comming in off a cool North Sea. I have had the heating on for 12 of the last 14 days in my house, last night was freezing. Very heavy rain last week on Tuseday with 82mm in my rain gauge and constant rain for 36 hours and that sorted out a lot of the duck and pheasant broods. Yet 20 miles inland the weather has been OK so I am told. Mixed story for the greylags with some good broods and some very poor ones , though I suspect fox predation rather than the cold weather for that. I have been told the young duck are fareing better in the Broads. Note these are mallard broods out n the wild not village pond ducks that are fed. Edited June 10, 2016 by anser2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TONY R Posted June 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2016 A few broods about but the recent rain up here is not good news, seems they just get a start and then it rains heavy. Over all i think this breeding season is not going to be one of the best ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted June 16, 2016 Report Share Posted June 16, 2016 (edited) I was out on the reserve this morning and the prospects are looking a lot better now than they did even a few weeks ago. I saw 12 broods of mallard,gadwall and shoveller with an average of 5.3 ducklings per brood. Most of the ducklings were in the 2 week age group , though there were several recently hatched broods and one brood of 4 that were about 5 weeks old. In other years by now we are usualy seeing the first flying youngsters ( early April hatched duck ) by now , but not this year , so it looks as though most of the early broods perished. We are having heavy rain showers often with an inch of rain in an hour or so , but at least its got a lot warmer and there looked like a good hatch of flies for their food today. Biggest brood was 8 ( gadwall ) and the smallest 3 ( mallard). The other promising thing was though there were quite a few groups of drakes there were very few females to be seen other than those with ducklings. The recent warm weather had produced a spurt of growth in the wetland plants and I think there were a lot more unseen broods in deep cover and its likely there are still quite a few birds sitting on second clutches. Saw few greylag goslings , but with so much cover that's to be expected. The first few young lapwings are just on the wing and we have a lot more of avocet chicks than I expected given the weather and the number of gulls about. Nice to see a family of spoonbills , 2 adults with a recently fledged youngster begging food. Edited June 16, 2016 by anser2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m greeny Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 Most of the greylag on our local waters are fully feathered up now as are the Canada's. A few more mallard hatched out over the last week or so I just hope these ones don't and up as the gulls dinner like the last lots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenergp Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 On Loch Lomond yesterday there well feathered mallards around the boat ramp, one mallard had a brood of 8 and there were also rafts of Candas sitting out on the loch lots of youngsters with them.........i said " see you in september" as i passed by Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenergp Posted August 5, 2016 Report Share Posted August 5, 2016 I was out fishing today and saw a mallard with a brood of pretty young ducklings, it must have had a second brood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted August 17, 2016 Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 Pleasantly surprised how many mallard I have been seeing recently in North and mid Norfolk recently. Early on things did not look so good , but saw good numbers of mallard on a gravel pit in the Wensum valley yesterday, plenty on my local village duck pond ( about 80 ) and nearly 200 on a small N Norfolk reserve ( close to average for mid August ). On the other hand had a couple visits to the saltmarsh and yet to see a duck! Things not looking like a bumper season , but not too bad considering the poor weather in the spring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony G Posted August 17, 2016 Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 Walking the dogs on the canal yesterday I saw 2 very young broods of mallard 5 and 6 young in the 2 groups Also saw a brood of 4 young mandarins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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