Garganey Duck

The sighting of a pair of garganey duck at Cabragh Wetlands highlights the importance of preserving a network of such wildlife havens, which species can use as stepping stones to re-establish themselves and gradually extend their range and breeding colonies. For most of the last century garganey (anas querquedula) were no more than rare wanderers in most of the British Isles, with breeding confined to the fens of the Norfolk Broads in the east of England. In the 1960’s a few were visiting Wexford, but not breeding, and in 2005 there were estimated to be just 130 pairs spread thinly across these islands at the western limit of their extensive Eurasian range.

Now there is a pair at Cabragh, which provides their ideal habitat – still water, flooded ditches, wet meadows and a surrounding of lush, rushy marshland into which they can scurry and hide if disturbed. They are the second smallest European duck, graceful but with rather dull plumage. The drake has a conspicuous white stripe over his eye.

Don’t be put off if they fail to quack at you in the expected duck-like manner. The male advertises himself with a cracking sound, which has been likened to breaking ice, or running your finger along the teeth of a comb. You might even mistake its call for a woodpecker.