The things you notice whilst birding

I may said this before so apologies....

As I wandered around Ickworth the other day I noticed that the small lakes bird population had changed. Normally there are the usual geese, coots, moorhens with the only duck present being the Mallard. And yet in Winter this changes....

For instance on Monday there were quite a few Tufted Duck's which I never see in Summer. This often happens at Hatfield Forest, in Summer often there are just Mallards (and maybe something else) but now you will definitely see Tufted Ducks, Gadwall, Teal (always up the far end from the shell house) maybe Shoveler and if you are lucky you will see a Wigeon.

Some of the Mallards you see at this time of the year are flighty, this is because the native birds are joined by migrating Mallards - we never think of Mallards migrating but some do.

Of course this applies to other birds we think of as native. The influxes of winter thrushes, finches etc contain continental migrants of birds we consider native.

Something to consider that the small bird visiting your feeder or bird table may have spent the summer in Norway or even further afield.