Wild Bird Wednesday 623 - Pochard

The Pochard (Aythya ferina) is a diving duck that visits the UK in large numbers (approximately 30,000 pairs) in winter.  It is a much less common breeding birds, with less that 800 pairs nesting in the UK.

It will not surprise people to know that I took these pictures in the winter!  These pictures were taken at the WWT Welney Reserve in Norfolk.  

In winter male Pochards are very distinctive with their bright reddish-brown head, a black breast and tail and a pale grey body.  Most of the pictures I took were of the male duck, but when I look at some of the 'wide angle' or group shots I took I can find very few females.  I'm not sure it this is a known behaviour or just a coincidence of the day.

Pochard are about about 46 cm long and weigh about 930 grams - making the smaller and lighter than a Mallard.

I'm not 100% certain that the odd duck out in this set of pictures is a female or a younger bird.  Oh well.

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the clink below.  cheers  SM

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Mammals on Monday 4 - American Red Squirrel

The American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) is a widespread species and is actually found over a greater area of Canada than the USA.

This species has an average length (including tail its rather wonderful tail) of 28 – 35.5 cm and a weight of 200–250 g.  

Rather shockingly, this animal is more closely related to you and me than any of the other mammals I have posted on Mondays so far.  Squirrels are a placental mammal, just like us, and while there are clearly differences in many areas their reproductive floorpan is much the same as ours.

These squirrels are comely found in coniferous forests where they feed on the seeds of evergreen trees. However, they are equally at home in deciduous forests, backyards, parks, and urban areas, where they  eat foods such as berries, acorns, hazelnuts, mushrooms, and sunflower seeds from backyard bird feeding stations.  Somewhat surprisingly there diet also includes birds eggs and mice!

When stressed this species can be rather vocal - and as my wife said, 'it looks like he is shouting' in one of these pictures. 

What a splendid animal this is.

SM