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Blickling Hall Lake Ruddy Shelduck (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Louis_P
- Start date
James Emerson
Norwich Birder
Hi Louis.
I think you may be out of luck on several counts! Ruddy Shelduck is currently only on category B of the main British list, i.e. species that have occurred in the wild but only before 1950. Therefore, no Ruddy Shelducks you are likely to see are officially classes as 'wild'. There is a feral population on the continent, so birds seen at the coast or in large flocks that aren't traced to known escapes may be genuine wanderers, and in the future could be acceptable.
The second thing is that I vaguely remember hearing about this bird at the time and it not being a Ruddy Shelduck, but the very similar Cape Shelduck (definitely an escape!) Carl Chapman blogged about it earlier in 2014, so I'd advise having a read and seeing if the bird pictured was the one you saw: https://letterfromnorfolk.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/a-ruddy-caped-crusader/
Regards,
James
I think you may be out of luck on several counts! Ruddy Shelduck is currently only on category B of the main British list, i.e. species that have occurred in the wild but only before 1950. Therefore, no Ruddy Shelducks you are likely to see are officially classes as 'wild'. There is a feral population on the continent, so birds seen at the coast or in large flocks that aren't traced to known escapes may be genuine wanderers, and in the future could be acceptable.
The second thing is that I vaguely remember hearing about this bird at the time and it not being a Ruddy Shelduck, but the very similar Cape Shelduck (definitely an escape!) Carl Chapman blogged about it earlier in 2014, so I'd advise having a read and seeing if the bird pictured was the one you saw: https://letterfromnorfolk.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/a-ruddy-caped-crusader/
Regards,
James
sacha
Well-known member
Hi Louis,
I am not sure how pure the bird was. I always suspected it to be part SA Shelduck.
There is a good blog page on various hybrids and recently there was also a Ruddy S x Egyptian Goose in the Taverham area. http://birdhybrids.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/ruddy-shelduck-x-south-african-shelduck.html?m=1
Either way Ruddy Shelducks are all considered to be escapes although there was an 'invasion' of birds in mid 90's and some of the birds I saw in Cornwall (family party) are suspected to have come from European introductions.
.... so not one you can safely count on a UK list (for now)
I am not sure how pure the bird was. I always suspected it to be part SA Shelduck.
There is a good blog page on various hybrids and recently there was also a Ruddy S x Egyptian Goose in the Taverham area. http://birdhybrids.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/ruddy-shelduck-x-south-african-shelduck.html?m=1
Either way Ruddy Shelducks are all considered to be escapes although there was an 'invasion' of birds in mid 90's and some of the birds I saw in Cornwall (family party) are suspected to have come from European introductions.
.... so not one you can safely count on a UK list (for now)
I remember some years back there was a pair of cape shelduck on derby river gardens they both stayed around there for some time till one went missing i think it was the drake but thee other one stayed put for a while till she started to venture down the river derwent i saw her once some miles down stream from the gardens she was observed for a while by others along that strech or area then she vanished thou other cape shelduck have been seen in more recent times locally, more recently a drake ruddy shelduck occupied a lake i go to for a brief period all escapes or releases but nice birds to see not ones your going to see that often on your travels round here.
Okay. Thanks for all the help guys. It was worth checking just in case it was found out to be a wild bird. I think the bird I saw was the Cape Shelduck mentioned in the blog post you linked in your comment James. It was a real long shot but it is nice that I have now settled that it was definitely a escapee.
