Who said Mallard were boring???

Just catching up with a few of the great blogs that I read and the following, from the Lower Derwent Valley NNR blog caught my eye, its about Mallard...:

[Ring number] GN12614, a Mallard caught and ringed at Wheldrake on 28/06/99 was re-caught today [Saturday 25th 2012] at North Duffield Carrs. That’s nearly 13 years since ringing and makes it at least 14 years old. Interesting that it’s not been re-caught since, so you have to wonder where it’s been since we last saw it. It’s certainly a good age for such a popular quarry species, the longevity record [for Mallard] from the BTO ringing in the UK is 20 years and 5 months.

This is cool, and one of the great things about ringing! Anyone who doesn't know the area Wheldrake is a few Kms north of North Duffield. Where has it been for the last 13 years??? Loads of waterfowl ringing goes on in the LDV so really surprising that its not been recaught prior to now!


Drake Mallard Photo Bert de Tilly

I was at a Wedding up in Pateley Bridge this weekend, a really beautiful location and had a great time. There was plenty of Red Kite about which is always nice to see! A morning walk round the village of Spofforth with Mike Bowman Images was really enjoyable too with lots of Red Kite, singing Yellowhammer, Song Thrush, Blackbird and Dunnock, vocal Great Spotted Woodpecker, several Long-tailed Tit and nest prospecting Jackdaw.

This evening I thought I'd take a quick look at North Duffield Carrs, it was fairly quite but a single Barn Owl and almost 40 Curlew were good. No sign of any more Short-eared Owls unfortunately. There had been a Bar-headed Goose on the reserve in the morning but unfortunately this had gone before I got down there.

Blue-winged Teal - Wheldrake Ings

Just back from a very mad dash!

The day started rather successfully with a singing male Blackcap audible from the garden, followed shortly after by the Green Woodpecker that proved rather frustrating last week when I saw it fly over my house from about 500m away! Today I was in the right place at the right time! Up to 73 now!

On the way home I got a text from Ollie if I fancied going to Wheldrake this evening. Unfortunately I said I'd got a bit too much on so would regrettably have to give it a miss.

This evening, I'd just started watering the garden when the phone went. It was Ollie. He'd got a drake Blue-winged Teal at Wheldrake. Argh! I didn't think I'd have enough time to get down there with the remaining light but I thought it would be worth a shot. A very quick drive got me to Wheldrake. A quick 'jog' down to Swantail Hide saw me in place and scanning the refuge. Cuckoo, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler were all singing away. A few more of the local managed to get down. An anxious 40 odd minutes passed before it was eventually picked up in amongst tall grass but by this time it was more-or-less dark and fairly distant and nowhere near as showy as it had been when Ollie first picked it out.


Blue-winged Teal in flight © Dan Pancamo 2010.

Great find Ollie and thanks for the call. Check out Ollie's blog here for full account etc. I'll have to try and get down tomorrow evening if it hangs about. Hopefully it might make an appearance on North Duffield Carrs too at some point?