Breeding success for rare duck on Swale Reserves

Pairs of Garganey have successfully produced young at two of Kent Wildlife Trust’s Swale estuary reserves. Broods of ducklings have been observed by the warden and volunteers at Oare Marshes and South Swale near Faversham during June.

This small and colourful duck (Anas querquedula) is a welcome sight during the summer months and can be best identified by the drakes’ bold white eye stripe. Another name for the Garganey is the "cricket teal" because of the drake’s croaking courtship call.  It is among the rarest of our breeding birds. 

Unlike other ducks that visit the British Isles, the Garganey is a summer visitor and spends the winter months in Equatorial Africa which involves a migration flight of 3,000 miles or more. Most will have left by the end of October.

Kevin Duval, Swale Area Warden for the Trust, said: "Sightings of these secretive birds are always notable, so the breeding success at our two reserves so close together is a special event for the Trust and a clear sign that good habitat management by staff and volunteers - along with suitably controlled water levels - has had a major impact."

 

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