marsh man Posted August 27, 2016 Report Share Posted August 27, 2016 Yesterday I had a lovely day visiting some of our local broads ( Filby , Hickling and Ransworth ) the reason for my visit , apart from the view was seeing what wildfowl were about , Greylag were all over the place , young and old and all waiting for a free lunch ,also plenty of diving duck , Coots were numerous on Hickling with a scattering of wildfowl , Ransworth is a excellent broad for wildfowl and if you have got the book , The King In His Country by Aubrey Buxton there is a chapter where they got over 900 duck on a morning flight which were all wild duck , back to today , there were wildfowl mainly Greylag , diving duck , a few Gadwall and a few pairs of Mallard . Tonight I had a wander round the marsh and I didn't see any bunches of duck at all , apart from a decent size brood of Mallard still in the flapping stage swimming up the fleet dyke. I know they haven't had one of there years but is it really as bad as this , or have the huge amounts of flight ponds been pulling them in , talking to our keeper a couple of weeks back, he was saying there isn't that many duck about but our keeper is always a bit on the negative side Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teal Posted August 27, 2016 Report Share Posted August 27, 2016 Got a pond I don't feed that always pulls in big numbers of mallard. Pleased to say that there are a lot of decent sized groups coming in. I'm thinking these are mostly family groups/broods. Coming in packs of 5 - 11 strong, last year had a lot of singles and doubles, not scientific but hopefully have done OK. Been a rubbish spring/summer for most wildlife though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted August 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2016 Got a pond I don't feed that always pulls in big numbers of mallard. Pleased to say that there are a lot of decent sized groups coming in. I'm thinking these are mostly family groups/broods. Coming in packs of 5 - 11 strong, last year had a lot of singles and doubles, not scientific but hopefully have done OK. Been a rubbish spring/summer for most wildlife though. Thanks for your reply and its nice to know you are seeing some reasonable size broods , the thing is round this way there are some very big commercial flight ponds that draw in most of the local duck and although you don't see the duck when the season start there is a huge amount of shooting going on and they are not shooting at clay pigeons . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinkertaylor Posted August 28, 2016 Report Share Posted August 28, 2016 ive been keeping my eye on a old barley stubble planted with turnips for the past 2 weeks whats been attracting a few canadas and greylags and the odd mallard took the dog a walk round the field yesterday morning and couldn't believe rhe amount of mallard that turned up just after dawn easily 200 plus theres 2 nature reserves close by so must be of there or of the local shoot up the road planning to have a go at the geese on thurs nite but looks like a mallard will kick start my season aswell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted August 28, 2016 Report Share Posted August 28, 2016 (edited) On the reserve I do the wildfowl counts on in N Norfolk mallard are well down for the time of year , by about a third . All the early broods failed in the cold spring those that hatched in May did ok , but not as well as I might expect. It was not just the cold it was the lack of insect food that did the damage. Part of my job in summer is to monitor butterflies, moths, beetles and dragonflies and all had their worst season for since recording started 20 years ago. This followed a pretty average to poor breeding season last season for duck last year so the breeding stock of adult mallard was low this spring. Note i am talking about wild broods not tame village mallard where the public feed them. Its not just the duck that have not done well. Until the first reared pheasants were released I had not seen a young pheasant older than a few days in my part of N Norfolk. On a brighter note teal are starting to arrive on the coast with 89 yesterday on the reserve and a few wigeon(24) and pintail (10) , plus 30 gadwall. Even the greylag numbers are less than half what we would expect for the time of year with 350 yesterday. Edited August 28, 2016 by anser2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted August 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2016 Anser2 ( Robert ) ..... I think you have hit the nail on the head stating , the breeding stock of adult Mallard were low this Spring , If you haven't the breeding pairs to start off with , then with the added problem of cold wet days / nights and the lack of insect life you will end up with the situation we are in now , not a disaster by no means but certainly not a bumper season on the cards as far as Mallard are concerned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinkertaylor Posted September 1, 2016 Report Share Posted September 1, 2016 sat and watched the same field lastnite for 2hrs until it got dark not a goosr or duck in sight they must no its that time of year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted September 4, 2016 Report Share Posted September 4, 2016 I saw a lot of airborne mallard up in the Nene valley on the morning of the 1st. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted September 4, 2016 Report Share Posted September 4, 2016 Its a strange feature i have noticed several times in the Broads that when the local duck have had a good breeding season i seen very few on the opening morning and visa versa. I do wonder if some years when there seems to be a brood in almost every dyke that they seriously deplete the food in the ditches , and move else where to feed and in years when the breeding season has been poor there is plenty of food in the dykes so what duck there in the area continue to feed in the ditches. This season was a prime example. The marsh where I shot the first morning had been empty of duck all summer and last week a mate had a look around it in daylight and never saw a feather , let alone a duck and yet on the opening morning there were quite good numbers of mallard and gadwall about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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