The wildfowl influx of December 6-7th 2003 at Stocks Reservoir, Lancs.

Tony Cooper and Bill Aspin.

The weekend of December 6th-7th 2003 saw a remarkable influx of wildfowl, namely Teal and Mallard (both in the region of c1000) to the site. In the light of this influx, I emailed ELOC chairman Tony Cooper in the hope of drawing on his years of experience counting the wildfowl at Stocks to put this influx into some sort of context.

Tony kindly responded as follows:

"I noticed Margaret and Mark Breaks records for c1000 each of Teal and Mallard on Saturday and c1000 Teal on Sunday.  I did counts on both Friday 5th Dec and Monday 8th Dec when numbers were Teal at 436 and 345 and Mallard at 336 and 158 respectively.  I also draw attention to my count today of 204 Wigeon compared with Mark's 300 for yesterday.  This all points to birds moving through over the weekend - probably related to the Easterly winds and cold weather in continental Europe at the moment.

 
In historical terms the Teal numbers are exceptional, but the Mallard numbers are not.  I have records from Stocks going back to 1973 but my consistent counts date only from 1980.  As you will see from the attached table, Teal numbers have equalled or exceeded 500 on only 4 occasions in the past 24 years and I have no records of them doing so in the preceding 7 years.  My maximum Mallard count is the wholly exceptional 1500 on 13 October 1984.  Along with other species present on that day, the whole surface of New Close Bay seemed to be covered with wildfowl.
 
I must emphasize that the figures relate to my counts only.  Whether anybody else has any higher figures I would not know."

Maximum Teal and Mallard Counts at Stocks Reservoir for the Period 1980 to 2003 - A.A.Cooper.

YEAR

TEAL

MALLARD

1980

200

13 Jan

120

13 Jan

350

23 Nov

800

27 Dec

1981

239

18 Jan

191

18 Jan

219

18 Oct

123

15 Nov

1982

91

13 Feb

82

13 Feb

135

12 Dec

429

12 Dec

1983

143

16 Jan

157

16 Jan

117

15 Oct

655

15 Oct

1984

449

12 Feb

283

12 Feb

340

14 Oct

1500

13 Oct

1985

46

12 Jan

178

12 Jan

225

27 Dec

268

22 Dec

1986

100

12 Jan

400

25 Jan

223

24 Oct

438

14 Sep

1987

174

15 Feb

187

17 Jan

205

8 Nov

370

22 Nov

1988

113

12 Mar

150

17 Jan

150

29 Dec

445

29 Dec

1989

210

3 Jan

135

3 Jan

515

5 Nov

1041

9 Dec

1990

175

3 Feb

100

3 Jan

462

14 Oct

650

7 Oct

1991

359

13 Jan

507

13 Jan

500+

10 Nov

812

10 Nov

1992

271

12 Jan

305

12 Jan

567

12 Dec

490

12 Dec

1993

200

23 Jan

200

23 Jan

226

6 Dec

296

17 Oct

1994

300

30 Jan

336

15 Jan

258

6 Nov

500

24 Oct

1995

204

12 Feb

301

3 Jan

155

7 Dec

362

7 Dec

1996

110

6 Jan

525

14 Jan

190

22 Oct

550

22 Oct

1997

225

31 Jan

540

31 Jan

360

1 Dec

561

12 Dec

1998

500

10 Jan

925

10 Jan

200

6 Nov

330

26 Nov

1999

160

9 Jan

418

9 Jan

400+

19 Dec

414

4 Oct

2000

185

8 Jan

280

8 Jan

221

15 Dec

338

15 Dec

2001

210

14 Feb

503

15 Jan

252

30 Oct

347

25 Oct

2002

90

12 Jan

395

26 Jan

304

15 Oct

381

30 Oct

2003

200

23 Jan

350

29 Jan