Sandbach Flashes: birds and wildlife

This vagrant from north America owes its place in this Atlas to one drake that lived at Inner Marsh Farm (SJ37B) in winter 2004/ 05 and then from 27 June 2005 into 2007.
Green-winged Teals were considered to be a race of Teal Anas crecca, until 2001 when they were split as a separate species. Their DNA may be different, but the two species appear to be identical in their habitat requirements and food; in the breeding seasons of 2004 and 2006 the bird at Inner Marsh Farm was seen displaying to a female Teal.

Formerly a national rarity, with records assessed by BBRC until 1990, Cheshire’s first was seen in 1984, followed by another in 1986, then the species has been recorded in every year from 1989 except 1995. There are suggestions that only a small number of long-staying or returning individuals are involved: elsewhere, birds have recurred for up to seven successive winters (Brown & Grice 2005). Every bird recorded in the county has been a drake, and they have appeared on most of the county’s inland waters and on both estuaries.