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
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