The steady decline of Pochard in the Group’s recording area continued in 2003. As with many waterfowl the nuclei of the population moved from Otley Gravel Pits to Knotford Nook. This year’s maximum was only 16 seen on 13th November and 19th December. No one site had this species present all year, Knotford came close with the summering male moving to Otley Gravel Pits for May before returning in June. Once again the only other site away from Otley to record double figures was Yeadon Tarn with twelve on 4th March.

Other sites with Pochard present at some point during the year were; Chelker Reservoir, Lindley Wood Reservoir, Doe Park Reservoir, Elland Gravel Pits, Fewston Reservoir, Beaverdyke Reservoir and Denton Hall Lake.

A better year than last as there were several counts over 20 and from three different sites. The highest counts were at Otley Wetland on 13th March and 23rd October, when 36 and 32 respectively were seen. Yeadon Tarn managed a peak of 26 on 28th February, but 22 at Knotford Nook on 19th December was surprisingly that site’s only count over 20. Fewston Reservoir was the only other location to record double figures, with the highest of 18 on 28th December.

A male appeared to spend the summer months in the Otley area, visiting both the wetlands and Knotford

The last year in which big wintering numbers of this duck were seen was 1999. Since then, numbers have fluctuated, and, after a few years with very low counts, there was a slight improvement in 2004, which seems to have been maintained.

Birds were recorded from seven locations, although three of them, Redcar Tarn, Lindley Wood Reservoir and Silsden Reservoir, failed to get into double figures, and at two of the others, Fewston Reservoir and Yeadon Tarn, the highest counts were 17 and 18, both in January.

Knotford Nook and Otley Wetland are historically the two sites where most birds are seen but little was seen in the second winter period, and there was only one sizeable count in the first winter months. The data for these is:

For some reason, Pochard no longer winters in the Group area in the numbers it did. There have been peaks and troughs in recent years, but there is now, apparently, no real expectation of getting much more than 40 birds in total in the Otley area, and only a handful elsewhere. So it proved in 2006.

For one of the few years in the past twenty, Knotford Nook failed to get into double figures, and the only significant monthly maxima came from Otley Wetland:

January 17, February 34, March 38, November 13, December 11.

The other sites from which birds were recorded were Yeadon Tarn, and the reservoirs at Ponden, Silsden, Lindley Wood and Ogden, where four birds on 8th January represented an unusual record. Of these, only Yeadon Tarn managed more than ten birds, when 12 were seen in February.

A male seen intermittently at Knotford Nook and Otley Wetland in April and June could well have been the one which has summered in the area in other recent years.

The recent downward trend has culminated in the worst year on record.

Only one double-figure count was recorded (just): 10 birds at Yeadon Tarn on 12th February, and the total of about 40 birds seen during the year as a whole is fewer than the size of the wintering flocks which were fairly commonplace a few years ago.

What was presumably the same drake of other recent years again spent part of the summer at Knotford Nook, but apart from this, birds were seen in only five months, and at seven locations.