Wigeon
Mareca penelope
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The drake's clear rising whistle across a winter marsh is one of the great Solway sounds.
A compact, round-headed grazing duck with a short blue-grey bill. Drakes have a chestnut head with a buttery-yellow forehead stripe, pink-grey breast and a white flash along the wing; females are warm brown. Wigeon winter on the Solway in large flocks, grazing the merse, wet grassland and estuary edge from September through to April, with almost none breeding in the area.
Behaviour
Unusually among ducks, wigeon graze like small geese, working across wet grassland and saltmarsh in tightly packed flocks with heads down. They also take advantage of swans and coots bringing weed to the surface, feeding on the scraps. The drake's call is unmistakable — a clear, rising, almost human whistle, 'whee-oo' — and a big flock keeps it up continuously.
Migration
Wigeon wintering here breed in Iceland, Scandinavia and northern Russia. Numbers on the Solway rise and fall through the winter as birds move on or arrive ahead of hard weather further east.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Ducks, geese and swans (Anatidae)
- Size
- 45–51 cm
- UK status
- Amber-listed
Photo by Laitche, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons