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Collecting records of odd birds - hybrids, feral species & colour mutations (1 Viewer)

Yashca

Well-known member
Sounds like an odd request, I know, but I ended up bumping into the same hybrid Barnacle x Ross' goose five times this year at five different locations, and found the area it spanned to be quite impressive. I also saw a Chiloe Wigeon in East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire at four different locations.

I've also been trying to determine how many of each feral species there are around the county. I saw a Bar-Headed Goose at North Cave and at Hornsea Mere this year, but I know that one was reported at Nosterfield earlier this year, and one was was reported last month at Scaling Dam.

Hybrid, feral & colour mutated birds (such as leucisim and albinism) are interesting because they don't behave in a typically 'wild' manner, but their distinctiveness means that, without too much difficulty, they can be tracked from site to site, and I, for one, think it would be interesting to see if such birds have regular movement patterns or wintering areas.

So any records of such birds would be gratefully received, with a date & site (even if out of county, I will probably ask for records on other county boards as well), even if birds seem to have been resident at a single location for years.

I would not like records of hybrids between Mallard 'breeds' as these are too common and not distinctive enough, and the same goes for hybrid Canada x Greylag Geese, as these are pretty common and all look pretty much the same. Any less common goose hybrid records would be much appreciated.

As far as feral species go, I'm only interested in the ones under the threshold of being counted as a breeding species. So Red Crested Pochard is counted as a breeding bird, as is Mandarin, but Black Swan, Ruddy Shelduck & Wood Duck are not. Any records of those last three species would be much appreciated, as would records of other equally less common feral species.

Thank you for reading this, and thank you for any records.
 
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