Can you do a mallard count?

[Jonquil_d]

Mallard seems to be about the only duck that I see locally and I am aware of at least half a dozen locations where they are to be found within five miles of home..
One of the striking things about them is the disparity in numbers between ducks and drakes. I know this is not totally peculiar to my area but I would be interested to see the result of counts from other parts of the country...so duck lovers everywhere, if you have sufficient fingers on your hand, how about doing some counting .....and letting me know where the count was made...and the outcome, how many ducks in the group and how many of them are female...not too difficult now that the drakes are coming out of eclipse.
Thankyou.

[Guinnessman1974]

A good idea. I currently carry out 'Wetland bird Surveying' ('wEBS') for the BTO on my local river, once a month, and on some surveys there can be up to 70 Mallards on my list.

As far as I remember from my last count, that the drakes outnumber the females, but on my next survey I'll make a formal count and let you know.

[Picidae]

or better still, submit all your records to the BTO using the WeBS leaflet here or emailing them to webs'at'bto.org - there's room to add the sex in the notes section

http://www.bto.org/webs/resources/B&...20HI%20RES.pdf

Total numbers of Mallard recorded period 2008/9

here: http://www.bto.org/webs/news/AR08_09/webs200809_2.pdf

Everything you want to know about Mallard nos./distribution can be found here - scroll down to page 62:

http://www.bto.org/webs/news/AR08_09/webs200809_4.pdf

''The decline in the wintering population
of Mallards in the UK continued in 2008/09.
Despite an increasing breeding population
(Baillie et al. 2010), the monthly indices
indicate that below average numbers were
present on WeBS sites throughout the year.
As a result, for the third successive year,
Britain had no sites of national importance
for its most familiar duck.'' So it's vital all records are submitted!

[Jonquil_d]

Mallard Latest

In all the local West Yorkshire populations the ratio of male to female is approximately 2:1.
Until this week there was just a mixed population in this kind of ratio but this week I noticed that they had gone into groups of three at at least two sites the group consisting of two males and one female.
A friend in Cumbria has just notified me that one of his local mallard populations is also into groups of three.

A correspondent in Eastern England seemed to have a slightly different ratio .
What are others seeing.

The BTO links mentioned by Picidae appear not to work.