Pochard Decline

We currently have four drake Pochard which hopefully will be joined by a few more as the weeks go by and stay with us for the winter period. It was a different story not so many years ago with counts at Astbury Mere above fourty during the winter period not uncommon. Numbers continue to fall both locally and also right across North West Europe . The UK breeding total is around 500 pairs , but during the winter it is estimated that around 59,000 arrive here from the breeding grounds in the east . Their long movements are explicable because the shallow waters that they favour are likely to be the first to freeze . The numbers reaching the UK have however dropped considerably in recent years as the warming climate allows more lakes and rivers in eastern Europe and Russia to remain ice free , so Pochard do not need to move as far. There is a strong differential migration with females moving farther south , probably due to the aggression from the earlier migration of males. But where both sexes share the same site the females hold their own and do not loose out on feeding opportunities . Pochard are largely an inland species and not so long ago most of the larger meres in Cheshire held good numbers of this scarce breeding bird. Pochard are primarily vegetarian , diving for their food in shallow water with abundant plant life although they do take small invertebrates .