Ferruginous Duck

[andy22]

In late autumn last year we was up driving past horsey when a Ferruginous Duck came on at martham broad. We was only 5mins away from it so we gave it a try. We arrived and managed to get the bird within seconds, watched it in the autumn sun. There was 3 other birders there, they had a good look at the bird then started chating. I carried on looking at the bird, it stretched its foot up to itch it's head and then suddenly i saw a blue ring around it's leg. I was wondering if anyone here, on the forums knows if european ringers colour band the birds they ring or if the bird i saw was an escape?

Cheers Andy

[marklhawkes]

There have been several colour-ringed birds seen in the UK during the last few years, all assumed to be escapes. There was a male in the west country that was colour-ringed, but I can't remember the colour. Also, a females in Derbys/Notts currently bearing a yellow ring.

[Josh Jones]

I assume the other bird in Derbyshire (the male) is unringed... Ferruginous Duck does seem to be one of those species that counter the argument that all wildfowl acting wild should be given the benefit of the doubt. Despite their close proximity to the UK in terms of natural range, the amount of escapees swelling the number of annual records is a little worrying.

In addition to these two ringed birds, there was also a drake kicking round London with Tufties in the spring and then into summer (unringed, but showed to just a few metres!) - I saw it, cracking bird but I imagine it has had a pretty dark history..

[RoyW]

Perhaps some of the tamer Ferrruginous Ducks ahould also be given the benefit of the doubt?

The London bird Josh mentioned was tame, and perhaps lingered a bit long - but unless the Tufties it was with also all 'had a pretty dark history' who can say for certain that it wasn't really a wild bird?
Birds like this certainly make it hard to draw a true picture of the occurence of wild birds - I wouldn't write this one off, but (if I had gone to see it) I wouldn't want it to be the only one I'd seen either!

AndyB has posted a good example of tame Hooded Mergansers in the states:

http://surfbirds.com/forum/showthread.php?p=9754#post9754