Off on the trail of a rare duck

Quite a rare duck had turned up at Ridgegate Reservoir over in Cheshire so that’s where Marcus and I were heading for. The last time I’d seen this species was 18th November 1986 so a just short of 38 years!

The bird in question was a Red crested Pochard – well actually it was ‘birds’ plural as it was a mated pair that had turned up not just a single drake. There’s not many ducks that could get confused with Red crested Pochard, the male is easily identified by its orange-brown “shaving brush” head crest, red beak, and pale flanks. The female is much more subtle with a palette of brown with pale cheeks.

The red-crested pochard is naturally found in a pretty wide range extending from southern and central Europe across central Asia, as far west as Mongolia. Its stunning plumage of the males have made it a very popular bird in wildfowl collections in the UK.

With so many of this species being kept in wildfowl collections as you’d expect quite a number have over the years escaped captivity and took up suitable habitats in the wild. So now a ‘wild’ population of Red-crested Pochards have established in England.BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) surveys carried out between 2010 – 2014 estimated at that time there were around 49 pairs breeding here in the UK.

The next survey assessed the number of wintering Red crested Pochard between 2012 and 2017 which were around 570 birds. In ornithology there’s always disagreement when it comes to some species of wildfowl – both ducks and geese have their supporters and other birders that berate anyone that accepts the ‘duck/goose’ as a wild bird. The arguments will continue as long as there are birders!

It's possible that some of the Red-crested Pochards seen in the UK, particularly in southeast England, have arrived under their own steam from continental Europe. Over the last century, the European population has grown and expanded north into Holland and Germany. They are a migratory species, annually flying between their breeding grounds and then into their traditional wintering sites.

The reservoir we had gone to is pretty much where you’d expect Red-crested Pochards to turn up at. The only thing missing on the reservoir were reedbeds – usually a definite option on the large freshwater lakes and pools that they call home. We were watching them feed – both by diving and popping up with beaks full of waterweed and surface feeding too. Primarily they are diving ducks but feed by both dabbling and diving.

During their breeding season they eat mainly aquatic vegetation while in winter they will supplement their diet with sedges, grasses, and seeds.Sadly as with many species we are the only species that affects the population of these birds. Humans affect red-crested pochards in many ways, including habitat loss, hunting, and pollution.