The Danish Camp Collection

The Gadsey Brook Gravel Pit - certainly a location worth regularly checking

Willington Blue-winged Teal's a duffer unfortunately

Jim Gurney, Lol Carman, Bob Chalkley and I were very kindly invited in by the owners of the Danish camp collection and I did an inventory of what he has in there (and photographed as many as I could). He had purchased the two Blue-winged Teals off of Zwetsloots just recently - the female being pinioned but the juvenile drake only partly - and as such is commuting back and forth. Fortunately, all of the collection birds were ringed (but mainly metal-ringed which is a bit frustrating).

 

In addition to the menagerie of South American wildfowl, I recorded the following (relevant species in our context in bold italics) ;-

 

12 Fulvous Whistling Duck, 9 White-faced Whistling Duck, 2 Pacific-type White-fronted Geese, numerous Hawaiian Geese, 5 Red-breasted Geese, 6 Australian Black Swans, 25 Cape Shelduck, 14 Australian Shelduck, 8 Paradise Shelduck, 5 Radjah Shelduck, 40 Mandarin Duck (some free-flying), 20 Wood Duck, 2 Eurasian Wigeon, 8 Chestnut Teal, 16 Garganey, 20 Speckled Teal, 10 White-cheeked Pintail, 4 Northern Pintail, 8 Yellow-billed Pintail, 2 Cape Teal, 4 Cape Shoveler, 2 Ringed Teal, 15 Red-crested Pochard (some seemingly free-flying), 4 Northern Pochard, 11 Ferruginous Duck, 2 Greater Scaup, 4 Common Eider, 8 Bufflehead, 4 Common Goldeneye, 8 Smew and 4 Ruddy Duck.

 

He also confirmed that a few Garganey had escaped over the 25 years he has had the collection and that he had purchased and lost 3 Pied Avocets (obtained locally).

 

Not entirely a wasted journey, as I had 3 separate purring male EUROPEAN TURTLE DOVES in the Willington complex but despite RB recording it 5 minutes before I arrived, I could not locate the Garganey on Derek White's