Garganey !

Blackcaps, Cetti's? Warblers and Reed Warblers,

Quite a good variety of duck to be seen: Wigeon, Shoveller, Teal, Mallard, Gadwall, and the two diving ducks, Pochard and Tufted Duck. Oddly enough I don't tend to see the Pochard diving all that much on a typical day.

A great drake Garganey seen at last!

Anas querquedula. This is the only member of the genus that is fully migratory, visiting the UK in very small numbers to breed each summer, with about 14 - 92 pairs known to breed per year. Numbers fluctuate noticeably at the edges of the range. Weather conditions may be the cause of sporadic movements up into new territory.

It seems to like well-compartmented, shallow and sheltered fresh waters - rather like BB2 in fact!

The drake is very striking with its white head stripe very clearly visible at first sight. It does seem to hide itself very well. I spent over a hour looking for it, so was a bit put out when another birdwatcher turned up and spotted it almost immediately coming out from behind a bank on the left.

Birds from the European/West African population winter almost exclusively between 10 and 20 N, pretty close to the Equator, while they breed mainly in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. They migrate through countries like France and Spain. Some research has been done by Guillemain et al on the Garganey's optimal refuelling strategy while staging in the Camargue. As little bodyweight was found to be added in the 329 birds examined, it was surmised that the prime importance of the staging area could be as a resting area, as opposed to a refuelling area. Alternatively it could simply be a refuge while the wait for conditions on the breeding grounds to improve. In either case the authors suggest that t is important to realise that management providing quietness and safety at stop-overs may be at least as important for this species as feeding opportunities. In my view these factors may be more inter-related than the authors suggest.

The

This male may already have been paired up as pair-bonds are very strong in this species, rape attempts are very rare and most (i.e. 97%) females are already paired at the end of winter (Cramp and Simmons 1977, and references therein). However I did not see the female!