Teal Anas crecca

In the interests of monitoring and understanding the spread of avian influenza (bird flu), Defra ask that you report any dead waterfowl (swans, geese, ducks), gulls, or birds of prey you find. You should also report any other dead wild birds you find in numbers of five or more. You can contact them on the Defra helpline (03459 33 55 77). Do not touch or handle the dead bird.

Picture by Julian Thomas

The numbers of duck wintering on the Broads and other waterbodies across East Anglia are influenced by weather conditions. With climate change, we are seeing a series of increasingly mild winters. Under such conditions, many visiting wildfowl are 'short stopping' on their migration, which means that they are now wintering further north and east than they used to. If we get a particularly cold winter, with waterbodies elsewhere in Europe freezing over, then we will see the numbers of wildfowl here in the UK increase. Data from the Wetland Bird Survey, coordinated by BTO, have been used to provide scientific evidence of this phenomenon and of short-stopping, both for wildfowl and many wader species. 

Picture by Elizabeth Dack

Although bread isn't harmful the general advice is to only feed small amounts to birds. It is better for the ducks to be fed a variety of different food including bird seed, porridge, oats, sweetcorn and defrosted frozen peas.

Picture by John Lincoln