2nd July - Heath Pond, Petersfield, Hampshire

So here we are in the second half of the year, where has the time gone this year, it only seems like yesterday we were walking along the beach in Perth!  

With the euphoria of the Purple Emperor sightings on Saturday still lingering it has been difficult to get motivated for something else, plus there isn't very much else to go and see.  The weather too has suddenly changed and the temperature has dropped into the teens once more with a cool north west wind, so looking for butterflies just wouldn't work.

Over the last few weeks a regular report was coming from an unlikely place, a male Ruddy Shelduck at Heath Pond in Petersfield.  This bird has been present here fro a few year and has been branded as "plastic" by many.  But in the same breath there has been a Barnacle Goose paired up with a white Goose at Farlington for years and it has been seen as OK to tick as have the many Egyptian Geese that are now frequenting the south coast and lakes in the county.

So to start the second half of the year on a positive note I decided to go along and get my year tick, something I haven't been able to do for 4 weeks.  The pond is on the outskirts of Petersfield and was much bigger than I expected.  The Shelduck frequents the area around the pontoon near the cafe, but I could not see it as I walked through the children's playground.  I walked up and down before heading to the pontoon, what struck me the most was the vast number of Egyptian Geese in the water and on the bank.

I finally found the Ruddy Shelduck, close to the pontoon and in the company of another Egyptian Goose.

The Ruddy Shelduck was very protective of either its area around the Pontoon or its friend the Egyptian Goose, if anything came too close it would swim at them, laying low on the water and "honk" nasally at the intruder.

 

So what about the providence of this bird?  In its native range, Ruddy Shelduck breeds from south-eastern Europe across Central Asia, wintering in South-East Asia and the Indian subcontinent, with a resident population in North Africa. Europe is currently estimated to host 33,900-53,100 individuals, with the nearest populations to Britain located in Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria. 

It is popular in collections and commonly kept in captivity in the UK and abroad. Many birds are suspected to escape annually, usually after the summer moult when some keepers fail to round up all birds for feather cutting. Escaped individuals have been known to breed in the past, the majority in southern and eastern England.

In recent decades though, increasing numbers of Ruddy Shelduck have been visiting The Netherlands to moult between June and August, with approximately 100 birds at the turn of the century across several sites. Since then, the moulting population has steadily increased, with 827 recorded in July 2013. By the summer of 2018, the four key locations hosted a combined 1,935 birds, a total substantially higher than the small Dutch feral breeding population of 10-30 pairs.

These Dutch birds are thought to moult at traditional safe areas with a reliable food supply, as they become flightless during the process. A similar phenomenon is seen in Common Shelduck, with up to 100,000 birds from across north-west Europe migrating to the German Wadden Sea each year to moult.

Although historic records in Britain undoubtedly comprise a number of escapes from captivity, there is an increasingly strong pattern to the species' occurrence. A small peak in March and April – coinciding with the timing of the birds' spring migration – is followed by a noticeable spike in late summer and early autumn, peaking between July and September – a similar trend to that of classic western European invasion years. Small numbers remain throughout the winter, bottoming out in February.

Of the 101 reports between 2005 and 2020 comprising flocks of four or more individuals, 86 (85%) occurred between June and September. Of these, a considerable majority (68%) were reported from locations along the east coast, with only 17% from western locations. Such occurrences appear to be becoming commoner: more than 10 flocks containing four or more birds were reported in 2020.

The arrival times of these small- to medium-sized flocks during late summer with an east coast bias correlate with birds that have either overshot The Netherlands on their way to moult or dispersed from The Netherlands after moulting.

On the balance of probability, it seems unlikely that these events relate to escapes from collections, particularly the now-reliable small flocks in late summer. Instead, the available evidence suggests that many Ruddy Shelduck sightings in Britain relate to individuals from the naturalised and established population on the Near Continent, and that these birds are consistently overshooting or dispersing from their moulting locations in The Netherlands, a short distance away from the coast of south-east England. Netherlands after moulting.

I have no idea when this bird appeared here, but the proximity, (as the Ruddy Shelduck flies) to the Wildfowl Trust at Arundel can not be over looked or any other private collection.  The duck seems quite settled and appears to have struck up a "friendship" with an Egyptian Goose.  Interestingly it only gets reported in the summer, where does it go outside of the season?  Does it go somewhere to moult?  It looks in perfect plumageso maybe it has already moulted and come here from where ever.

Needless to say there will be those who are sceptical on its origins, and I have to be one of those, but it is still a very smart duck and it is wonderful to be able to get up close.

I couldn't go with out photographing some of the other wildfowl, a smart male Tufted Duck in interesting water.

And of course one of the Egyptian Geese desperate to get to the bank before all the bread was gone!