SBSG - Photographs and Info

Birds and Habitats in the SBSG area.
Photographs and Information.

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Red-breasted Merganser

Male Red-breasted Merganser, Derwent Res, 27 Feb 2002 - Ashley Fisher

Photographs Copyright © Ashley Fisher

The first known breeding record for Red-breasted Merganser in the Sheffield area was in 1979. Prior to that, apart from a redhead in Derwentdale and a male at Broomhead in July 1978, there had been no summer records of the species at all. By the mid-1980's a small breeding population had become established around the Upper Derwentdale reservoirs. Outside the breeding season the species is a passage migrant in small numbers. Birds return to the uplands usually around March or early April, but in the early years of the new millennium [at least] the return date has been somewhat earlier. The above male, for example, was photographed by Ashley Fisher at Derwent Res on 27th February 2002 and in fact had been reported as early as January. Whether this bird had over-wintered in the area is unknown, or maybe an early return was prompted by the mild weather experienced locally in these winters. The following two photographs of a pair at Abbey Brook just below Howden dam in late April 1999, were taken by John Rochester. Read a brief account of an unfortunate pair at Redmires Res. Last updated 10th March 2002

A pair of Red-breasted Mergansers on the River Derwent below Howden Dam, April 1999 - John Rochester
Photograph Copyright © John Rochester

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