The Scaup is a diving duck that does not breed in Ireland but overwinters here.
Scaup are diving ducks that do not breed in Ireland. They are winter visitors from Iceland, northern Europe, and western Siberia. They come here at this time of year and stay until April. However, the number of birds coming here has declined by 89.2% over a 23-year period. Factors believed to be causing that decline include climate change, habitat loss, and loss of feeding due to deterioration in water quality.
The East Atlantic Flyway is a major migration route stretching from Arctic regions to Africa. Parts of it are used by millions of wild birds to travel back and forth between summer breeding grounds in the north and wintering sites in in the south.
Ireland happens to be strategically located on the flyway, so the island is hugely important for many species, notably wintering wetland birds. Wintering wetland birds are birds that are dependent on wet places like bogs, lakes, rivers, marshes, and estuaries during the winter half of the year. The birds come here to feed, shelter, and roost in safety as Ireland’s wet places normally stay ice-free and the winters are milder than elsewhere.
Ducks, geese, swans, waders and their allies are the best known wintering wetland birds found in Ireland, and they have been flooding to our shores recently in considerable numbers. Many people welcome their seasonal arrival heralded by the sight of skeins of geese overhead, the evocative whistling of ducks like Wigeon, the well-known “peewit” call of Lapwing, and/or the bugling trumpeting of Whooper Swans.
The Irish Wetland Bird Survey (I-WeBS) monitors wintering waterbird populations at their wetland sites across the Republic of Ireland. Nationally, more than 800 sites are counted up to seven times each year by over 400 volunteers and professional conservationists. The survey is coordinated by BirdWatch Ireland and is funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
An I-WeBS national trends report, published on 1 April 2022, presented long term trends for 35 species with sufficient data for a 23-year period. The birds that suffered a large decline in order of severity were Scaup, Pochard, Goldeneye, Lapwing, Grey Plover, and Golden Plover. Species that suffered a moderate decline or an intermediate decline included Dunlin, Curlew, Turnstone, Coot, Mallard, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Red-breasted Merganser, Pintail, Great Crested Grebe, Shoveler, Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit, and Ringed Plover.