Red-brested
Merganser |
Goosander |
RED-BREASTED
MERGANSER Mergus serrator
Uncommon passage/winter visitor.
An increasingly uncommon species in the Group area, there was only one record: a female in the Goosander roost at Thornton Moor Reservoir on 6th November (KM).
GOOSANDER
Mergus merganser
Resident breeder, passage/winter visitor.
Whilst this species continues to be well-recorded, with 165 reports received for 2005, the actual numbers of birds seem to be down on what they were several years ago. In particular, winter roost counts are relatively modest in comparison with those fairly commonly reported ten years ago.
Records of double-figure counts came from ten locations, although the highest ones were limited to the roosts at three of them. Lindley Wood Reservoir had the year’s highest count of 89 on 4th February, up to 70 birds were at Elland Gravel Pits on three dates in early December, and Thornton Moor Reservoir had a maximum count of 45 on 27th February. At other sites, not usually featuring under this heading, there were nineteen birds on the River Calder, Brighouse, in February, and 24 at both Lister Park, Manningham in March, and Graincliffe Reservoir in December.
What little breeding information there was came from the Wharfe and the Aire. On the former, six young were raised near Askwith, and different groups of two and eleven were seen at Bolton Abbey, and six at Burley. Eleven small young near Marley in May had probably been reduced to the eight well-grown ones present there a month later.