Possibly a good season awaits?

[henry d]

I have noticed good numbers of duck and geese, especially canadas, local to me on the Tay and Eden. Even back as far as June I had seen excellent broods of local greys.

How is it looking your way?

[Salmo]

Loch Leven has a lot of greys and Canada’s at the moment we have the on 2 fields . Duck are a shock we have no teal but normally at this time we have 200 plus on 1 pond alone 

[marsh man]

31 minutes ago, Salmo said:

Loch Leven has a lot of greys and Canada’s at the moment we have the on 2 fields . Duck are a shock we have no teal but normally at this time we have 200 plus on 1 pond alone 

I would go along with that , we have got a lot of resident Greys and a good lot of Canad's , but the duck seem in very short supply , we had a lot of decent broods early which should be now on the wing , I am wondering if the large amounts of flight ponds are drawing in the duck as you are seeing very few going on the barley stubble's, nowhere near like they used to .

[figgy]

Seen loads of duck on village ponds all over the greens and geese flying over. On checking our marsh very little about. Hope the duck are there come the first. Locally more and more wildfowl are going to parks and staying put. 

[sam triple]

over 100 Canadas apparently with Teal coming in

[Continental Shooter]

Had the same feeling but thought it was my imagination. Seen lots of ducks in ponds in and around town and the estuary was pretty empty last time I checked. Good numbers of resident Canada and Gray on the east coast but probably these have been lifted off by many beach goers given the good weather

[Sundodger2]

Ducks and Canada's a plenty down here. In the southwest.

[aberisle]

While out fishing on Loch Lomond earlier this month i saw a brood of Mallard chicks that were still in down they would probably be a second or even third brood so hopefully it should be a good duck season, plenty of Canadas about as well.

[Walker570]

Had a mallard duck raise five youngsters on a farm pond and a moorhen on the same pond also raised five chicks.  The mallard managed to save two and the moorhen one. The remainder went down the gullet of a local buzzard and I had it on trail cam.  NOW, supposedly buzzards only eat carrion don't they ?

The good news is that it appears the heavy rains we have had have not caused to much havoc with pheasant broods as we are seeing groups of eight and ten well grown poults about  and this is in woodland whre birds are not released.

[Peterr]

hope its agood one

[Gerry78]

Yes the big lough I’m gonna hunt this year has good numbers of mallard 🦆 flying about so hopefully be good year Bit with wildfowl You never know 🙄🙄🙄

[grahamch]

Suppose that depends on whether or not the wuckfits at Natural England grant your wildfowling consents. 

 

 

[figgy]

Seen plenty of broods of Canada's and greylags locally, whether they remain come the season is another matter. They usually ****** off on the fields and if enough moon stay on feeding and don't flight on our marsh. All the earth works and raising of water levels is done and getting back to normal so fingers crossed.

[Norfolk wildfowler]

For the forth year running the East Norfolk duck seem to have had a very poor breeding season. This season at least I thought the warm dry spring would let them do well , but I have only seen 2 well grown broods on the marshes and too many pairs about for the time of year. Village ponds are a different story where the young get fed by the public. I have been doing a lot of fishing on the Chet and Wavenly and yet to see any  ducklings on the open rivers. What is even more worrying I have been doing some pond  dipping on the South Breydon Marshes and insect life is very sparce.  Few water beetles , no water boatmen, only a handful shrimps and few dragon and damselfly lava. In short the dykes are almost empty of aquatic insect life and its this very life that the ducklings depend on in their early days. Just look up the national trends in mallard populations in the UK and the breeding  population were down by -7 indices over the last 20 years and -33 for wintering birds.  Greylag on the other hand seem to have some very good broods with one of five and a second of 8 seen ( all just flying ) seen on the Wavenly  Yesterday.

 

 

Edited June 28, 2020 by Norfolk wildfowler

[Spaniel]

Never managed to even get out last season, so hopeful this season will be a good one

No trips booked so staying local on our club land this season, but no doubt will start planning a trip for next season 2021/2022 some where up North 

[Manish]

On 28/06/2020 at 16:07, Norfolk wildfowler said:

For the forth year running the East Norfolk duck seem to have had a very poor breeding season. This season at least I thought the warm dry spring would let them do well , but I have only seen 2 well grown broods on the marshes and too many pairs about for the time of year. Village ponds are a different story where the young get fed by the public. I have been doing a lot of fishing on the Chet and Wavenly and yet to see any  ducklings on the open rivers. What is even more worrying I have been doing some pond  dipping on the South Breydon Marshes and insect life is very sparce.  Few water beetles , no water boatmen, only a handful shrimps and few dragon and damselfly lava. In short the dykes are almost empty of aquatic insect life and its this very life that the ducklings depend on in their early days. Just look up the national trends in mallard populations in the UK and the breeding  population were down by -7 indices over the last 20 years and -33 for wintering birds.  Greylag on the other hand seem to have some very good broods with one of five and a second of 8 seen ( all just flying ) seen on the Wavenly  Yesterday.

Thats not a good thing. Im hoping for a good session too. During the spring I was seeing good numbers of mallard on the Ouse near Downham Market. Still seeing a few but didnt spot any young. Maybe they went up to the sailing club near the pub. Its non tidal there so less harsh I guess