Species Spotlight - Northern Pintail (Anas Acuta)

Richard Smith

Pintail at Inner Marsh Farm RSPB, Jan 2006, © Charles Farnell

The Pintail is surely our most elegant duck. The drake Pintail with it's striking plumage, long neck and tail is instantly identifiable both on the water and in flight. Here on the Dee Estuary we are lucky enough to have large numbers present through autumn and winter; in fact the numbers are so high that the estuary is the most important site in the country for this species and has been since 1987.

Twenty years ago the nearby Mersey Estuary was the most important site and had been since the early 1970s. As can be seen from the graph above numbers on the Dee, and even more so on the Mersey, increased rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s. The reason for this rapid increase is unclear but Prater, writing in 1981, thought it may have been due to a redistribution of the north-west European wintering population, caused to some extent by changes to the Rhine delta area. One thing's for certain, they certainly found the undisturbed marsh on the estuary side of the Manchester Ship Canal very much to their liking, peaking to a remarkable 18,450 on Nov 23rd 1980, which is still the highest single count of Pintail in this country. Although the increase on the Dee Estuary was not so dramatic the two estuaries combined held up to half of the UK wintering population between 1973 and 1992. 

There's little doubt that there was much interchange between the two estuaries with birds often seen flying over Wirral. During the 1970s and 80s the usual pattern was for peak numbers on the Dee to occur in October, followed by a later peak on the Mersey in mid-winter. It is therefore likely that there was a general movement of birds from the Dee to the Mersey through the winter. But there was also daily movements, on high spring tides which covered the marsh birds were often seen to move from the Dee to the Mersey only to fly back later on in the day. This might well be what happened on Nov 23rd 1980 when 18,450 were on the Mersey but only 645 remained on the Dee Estuary. On the following month's count 5,510 were back on the Dee and numbers had dropped to 8,100 on the Mersey. The highest count on the Dee Estuary occurred on Oct 15th 1989, when 11,915 were present, on the same day only 3,200 were on the Mersey.

In more recent times counts have dropped off. But whereas numbers on the Dee have stabilised to between 5,000 to just above 6,000 those on the Mersey have plummeted. So much so that the max count on the Mersey Estuary in 2006 was only 44, the lowest recorded there for well over 40 years. Quite why this has happened is not clear, perhaps the Mersey is now too clean in terms of organic matter and therefore there are less invertebrates for the birds to feed on. The Wetlands and Wildfowl Trust, writing in 1998, concluded that birds had relocated to other sites in the UK, although the reason was unclear. On the Dee the increase in the land managed by the RSPB and consequent reduction in the amount of shooting has probably helped to stop, and to some extent, reverse the decline here. This would also encourage birds to stay on the Dee rather than expend energy moving between the two estuaries.

Pintail tend to use relatively few sites in winter and prefer to stay in large flocks in sheltered coastal habitats, such as estuaries. They occur right across the northern hemisphere with two to three million in North America, a couple of million across Asia, East Africa and Eastern Europe, and finally 60,000 in north-west Europe of which just less than half occur in the UK. In most winters peak numbers on the Dee Estuary occur in early winter indicating that these may well be birds which breed relatively near, in Iceland and Scandinavia, which then move on later in the winter. There is no indication of a return passage. Typically in the country as a whole, but less often on the Dee, a second peak occurs in mid-winter and this is assumed to be due to an influx of continental birds which breed further east, such as northern Russia.

Pintail in the gutter off Thurstaston with the tide starting to come in, Feb 2007, © Richard Smith

Despite the high numbers on the Dee Estuary Pintail can often be difficult to see as they spend much of their time out of sight on the edge of Burton and Parkgate Marshes. However, if you go to the right place at the right time you can often get good views:

1. At low water the majority of Pintail loaf and feed along the main river channels between Oakenholt and  Bagillt. Both the Connah's Quay Reserve and Flint Point are good vantage points to see these birds. With the incoming tide they then float and flight to feed along the marsh edge between Burton and Heswall (depending on disturbance).

2. Inner Marsh Farm RSPB. High numbers can occur here in September and October, usually on spring tides. Max count at this site was 3,850 on Oct 28th 1995. 1,600 were here on Sep 12th 2006.

3. Heswall Marsh, Riverbank Road. Flocks of several hundred can sometimes be seen flying on the edge of the marsh at high tide which is a lot closer here than at Parkgate.

4. Point of Ayr, RSPB hide. Through the winter good views of a hundred or more can be had from the hide at high tide.

5. Thurstaston Shore. In winter there are usually up to 100 birds in the gutter at low tide, 100 yards or so from the beach.

References:
1. BTO Migration Atlas, 2002.
2. Cramp & Simmons, Birds of the Western Palearctic, 1977, (and updated version on CD).
3. Cheshire & Wirral Bird Reports, 1964 to 2006
4. A.J. Prater, Estuary Birds of Britain and Ireland, T & A D Poyser, 1981.
5. WeBS Reports, 1988-89, 1995-96 to 2004-05.
6. Dee Estuary WeBS Annual Report 2005/06, Neil Friswell and Colin Wells.
7. Simon Delany and Derek Scott, Waterbird Population Estimates, 3rd Edition, Wetlands International, 2002.
8. WeBS data kindly send direct to me by BTO.
9. WWT, Research Paper - Long term trends in wintering pintail in GB 1996-95, 1998.

Any WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) data in this article should not be used in any way without permission of the WeBS Office. To access official WeBS data please contact the WeBS Secretariat - BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP 24 2 PU  http://www.bto.org

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