The end of an era!

Our female Ferruginous Duck is no more!  First found on my Brussels patch on 13 December 2012, during a severe cold spell which resulted in virtually all other open water in the area freezing over, my past two visits have failed to find her and she was last seen on 11 November.  A presumed adult in 2012, that would mean she reached the grand old age of 10 (back in 1987, the oldest-known, wild individual was only 8 years old).  The next two pictures show how she has matured over the years, the first being taken in December 2012, the second in January 2018.

As you can see, she became much more male-like with maturity, resulting in several mistaken reports of male birds.  She is also the individual wild bird I have gotten to know the best in all my time birdwatching.  Until autumn 2019, she would disappear to parts unknown for the summer but, presumably since going through duck menopause (I'm not making that up!), has not bothered to migrate and remained here all year-round, making her the one and only resident Ferruginous Duck in the whole of Belgium.  I have thus taken dozens of visitors to see her over the years and knew all of her favourite places so I rarely had a visit to my patch without finding her.  She would also allow me to get very close before calmly swimming away.  Very much a loner, she was occasionally found in the company of Tufted Ducks, attracting the attentions of bachelor males, and I even saw her being courted by a male Wood Duck once.  Goodness know what the resulting hybrids would have looked like had that succeeded!

My year-listing, despite seeing 53 species on on near my Brussels patch yesterday, doesn't quite feel the same without her.  I'll miss you, Fergie.