Creature of the Week – Gadwall

Long time no post! Apologies that I have been a little lax in posting. Life has kind of taken over but I’m back and have some wildlife related adventures coming up over the next few months that I can hopefully share with you!

I’m starting back with a Creature of the Week. I happened to spot this little chap at Wollaton Park in Nottinghamshire. Just this single male from what I could see and he seemed rather too friendly for a true wild bird (he was being hand fed when I first spotted him) so I suspect he is actually an escape that has got a bit lost.

But it let me get a lot closer to this beautiful dabbling duck. Often referred to as a ‘grey’ duck, the male has a glorious array of patterned feathers and seems rather delicate next to the brash mallards. He wasn’t as perfectly preened as I would have expected with his feathers a bit ruffled and the definition between the varying patterns were indistinct and not quite the clean separations you normally see. This is most evident on the white bar or speculum which is normally a clean white block next to the black rump.

He was silent, but as a breed they are fairly chatty with a series of low croaky sounds that make them sound like a chorus of frogs not a flock of ducks.  And during breeding season when the males have a lovely little ‘pee’ whistle when courting a female.
We have a small (790 pairs) resident breeding population but over wintering birds swell the numbers to around 25,000*. They like the shallow vegetation around the edges of lakes and gravel pits and occasionally visit coastal lagoons.
*Breeding figures from the RSPB

Creature of the Week

I plan on doing some little posts highlighting a seasonal creature that has captured my attention, but also one that you can get out and see too!

The first to take the honour is…….. the Redwing! I remember the first time I saw a redwing. It was about 6/7 years ago in an inner city supermarket car park. Not the most promising of wildlife locations I grant you and it was a complete fluke that I saw them, but they were there for a very good reason. Berries. They love them and supermarkets tend to plant berry-bearing trees and shrubs in their car parks to brighten them up. They are winter visitors to the UK and will venture into towns and cities more when there is cold, frost and snowy weather to find food. Redwing are members of the thrush family, and at first they look a lot like your garden song thrush but are smaller, with the additions of a natty cream eye stripe and a small orangey-red patch just under the wing. Yep, its one of those helpfully named birds that describe itself.

A small flock has been hanging around my local park for the past few weeks, so I went off in search of a photo opportunity. The extremely icy conditions and cold temperatures weren’t the best for wildlife photography, but I managed to get a few nice shots.