sitty tree Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 hello lads. does any body now if the wigeon numbers have declined. what was it like in your part of the country.i no up north you used to hear tons of wigeon hear /there . but last couple of seasons it has all gone quiet . hardly any feed back from anywhere. do you think it could be down to marsh errosion .regards peter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
margun Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 (edited) There was a population of about 5 - 10,000 around the Swale in Kent this year. Usual numbers - there's normally a large population which live on Sheppey. Getting near them was another matter mind you, food sources were plentiful. Still a fair few around on some lakes near where I live. I noticed they were very slow to turn up though, I guess because we had such a mild Autumn. Edited March 6, 2012 by margun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
margun Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 BUT - you mention general decline...my landlord reckons back in the 70s and early 80s there used to be a raft of 5000 or so wigeon which used to overwinter along the River Stour between Canterbury and Sandwich. They're down to 1000 to 2000 these days. He thinks it is down to modern farming practices.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 I think wigeon numbers will depend on what part of the country you shoot in this year. To start with we had a very mild winter which did not encourage many to cross the North Sea , until the very end of the foreshore season. Once that time of the year comes around the duck are as likely to sit out cold weather as move west infront of it. In East Anglia we have had drought conditions all season and still have. With no flood water inland any wigeon that came in quickly moved on. in contrast Scotland and much of NW England had a very wet winter and I have been told they had very good numbers , but with the inland flooding did not use the coast much. Personaly my wigeon bag was well down by about 50% on the coast and none shot inland. Overall the wigeon numbers have shown a steady rise until the past couple of years in Wales , Scotland and England. This link will show population trends of bird survey work.http://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/u18/downloads/publications/wituk0910_section5.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayano3 Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 I see quite a lot of Widgeon on The Wash...not many in the bag ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reabrook Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 I got the impression over here in the west that widgeon numbers were somewhere around average for the season. Yes they were late arriving very late in fact but from late December onwards they were here in numbers. With the milder winter we had this year they weren't forced to spend a lot of time on the coastal marshes until the season was almost over giving the impression that they just weren't about. One or two of the Welsh estuaries I visted had some good numbers quite a bit earlier strangely enough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sitty tree Posted March 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 hello lads . nice to hear your getting good numbers down south as one guy said getting near them is another matter.(lol)i think we all know that feeling.and scotland seem to have had good numbers also but north west part of the country where we shoot seemed very poor. what i do know is that the river esturay and upper river is becoming more clean with lots more sand than mud. which seems to have moved the teal and other species elsewhere to feed . still get lots of teal etc/etc but not like it used to be two/three seasons ago.regards for all replys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudpatten Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Don`t forget also that the heavily fed reserve areas run by the likes of the RSPB, WWT and local naturalist trusts tend to suck birds out of their traditional wintering grounds and concentrate them in honeypot areas. Numerically speaking, wigeon are doing reasonably well internationally and there is no cause for concern for their future as a quarry species. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reabrook Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Don`t forget also that the heavily fed reserve areas run by the likes of the RSPB, WWT and local naturalist trusts tend to suck birds out of their traditional wintering grounds and concentrate them in honeypot areas. Numerically speaking, wigeon are doing reasonably well internationally and there is no cause for concern for their future as a quarry species. Whilst I'd agree with that in general it's also worth noting that widgeon were also late arriving into Slimbridge and when they did arrive spent much more time out on the river rather than in the reserve. It was a very strange season weather wise and I'm convinced it had more of an affect on migration patterns than an overall harsh winter. I have no science whatsoever to back that up just my own observations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenntay Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 This season in the north west widgeon number seemed down on the estuarys but due to the amount of in land flooding the widgeon were scattered all over the place,but the cold snap at the end of January brought the big numbers back to the estuary . They were here but just in land spread out all over the place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sodylt1 Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 They were late coming on to the Dee and only started to show in any number from December up to the end of the season, the year before when we had the big freeze in November / December there were upwards of 10,000 counted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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