A Drove of Ducks

Chris Bentley
, 20 December 2021
A Drove of Ducks
Gadwall

Winter is the best time to see a good range of duck species at Rye Harbour because many are escaping the cold icy winters of northern and eastern Europe, increasing the numbers of individuals and species on the reserve. They are also in their best plumage in winter and spring.

Ducks can be separated in to four groups, dabblers, divers, sawbills and sea ducks, based partly on structure and partly feeding habit (though there is some overlap). 

Dabblers 

... are the classic and very familiar ducks such as Mallard, Teal, Gadwall and Wigeon, species which are largely vegetarian and feed by upending in shallow water. 

Gadwall also feed by shadowing Coots (also vegetarians) and steal the vegetation that they bring up from deep water, while flocks of Wigeon can be found grazing on grassland during the winter months. Shoveler belong to this group though they feed by sieving tiny invertebrates and seeds out of the water using comb-like structures on their huge bill. 

The Garganey is also a dabbler, but unusually amongst our ducks it is the only British species which occurs as a summer visitor.

Diving Ducks

...include species such as Tufted Duck and Pochard, which are both reasonably common on the reserve, and others such as Scaup which are less frequently seen! As the name suggest these species hunt aquatic invertebrates by diving and swimming under the water. Beware that many of our Tufted Ducks have much white at the base of the bill, which is a feature of Scaup - see the BTO guide by clicking here. A very uncommon visitor to Rye Harbour is the Red-crested Pochard, which despite being taxonomically related diving ducks is very reluctant to dive and prefers to feed by dabbling.

Sawbills 

...are probably the least common of the three groups when it comes to Rye Harbour, though one species, Goldeneye is an annual winter visitor (albeit only in small numbers). As their common name suggests these species have serrated bills which are helpful when it comes to gripping their slippery prey! In the case of the smaller species such as Goldeneye and Smew, this includes aquatic invertebrates and small fish, while for larger species such as Goosander (photo, showing the saw bill) and Red-breasted Merganser the diet is almost exclusively made up of fish. The BTO have a nice video on identifying the two large species - click here.


Sea Ducks

... a rather looser category. Many ducks can and will rest on the sea including most of the common dabblers, diver and saw-bills but there are several species that are found here almost exclusively. This includes species as Common Scoter (and the rarer but still regular Velvet Scoter), Eider and Long-tailed Duck (though at Rye Harbour most records of this species are from Ternery Pool). In terms of feeding behaviour, these species are like the ‘divers’ in that they need to dive underwater to reach their prey (largely molluscs and crustaceans). Then there is the Shelduck, our only duck where the male and female have similar plumage - and that's because they nest underground, so the female doesn't need to be camouflaged. In spring they become more vocal and here we have slowed the sound down to hear more detail.

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1783033664.97060 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1783033664.9960.0254Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1783033664.99610.0001Server address: 216.73.217.131
1783033664.99620Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1783033664.99620Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/a-drove-of-ducks
    [s] => a-drove-of-ducks
    [1] => a-drove-of-ducks
)
1783033664.99650.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783033664.99750.001 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1783033664.99960.002 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1783033665.00020.0007INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1783033665.00250.0023 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22542125
1783033665.00320.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22542125
1783033665.0040.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-02 23:07:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-02 23:07:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1783033665.00540.0014 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='a-drove-of-ducks')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 23:07:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1783033665.00820.0028 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783033665.00890.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2688 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 23:07:00'
1783033665.010.0011 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1783033665.01110.0011 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1783033665.0120.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=88 LIMIT 1
1783033665.01260.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=70 LIMIT 1
1783033665.01320.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=45 LIMIT 1
1783033665.01380.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=66 LIMIT 1
1783033665.01450.0008Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783033665.01480.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1783033665.01570.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 23:07:00' AND postSlug='a-drove-of-ducks'
1783033665.03740.0216Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783033665.03790.0005 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1783033665.03990.0019Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1783033665.04010.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1783033665.04110.001 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1783033665.04260.0015 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783033665.04560.003 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783033665.04620.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783033665.04830.0021Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1783033665.04840 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783033665.0490.0007 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783033665.04940.0004 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783033665.05150.0021 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783033665.05230.0008 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783033665.05290.0006 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783033665.05550.0026 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783033665.05640.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1783033665.06580.0093 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1783033665.06630.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783033665.06660.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='9' LIMIT 1
1783033665.06810.0015Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1783033665.06850.0004 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='a-drove-of-ducks')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 23:07:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1783033665.07080.0024 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783033665.07230.0015 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783033665.0750.0027Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1783033665.0760.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2688 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1783033665.13280.0568 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1783033665.1330.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783033665.13330.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='9' LIMIT 1
1783033665.13420.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1783033665.1350.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1783033665.13560.0006 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783033665.13770.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783033665.13820.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783033665.140.0018 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783033665.14120.0012 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783033665.14190.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783033665.14250.0006 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783033665.14480.0024 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783033665.14540.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783033665.14780.0025 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783033665.15130.0035 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1783033665.15210.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1783033665.15260.0005 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783033665.15490.0023 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783033665.15550.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783033665.15760.0021 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783033665.16040.0028 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783033665.16110.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783033665.16160.0005 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783033665.16420.0026 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783033665.16480.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783033665.16690.0021 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783033665.16830.0014Request time: 0.1991
1783033665.16830Process time: 0.1989
1783033665.16830Memory: 1.6519