Gadwall Anas strepera

The Gadwall is a regular breeding species in the southern part of Sweden. When the counts started the species was local and was seen in small numbers in some areas.

In January only few individuals are seen in Sweden since the species startedto winter in the country in small numbers. As can be seen from the index diagrams, the number of Gadwalls counted increased after year 2000. At the census in 2019 no less than 799 individuals were counted at the visited sites, which was more than double of the total for the former maximum number counted in 2018. Most of the Gadwalls were counted in the provinces of Gotland (364) and Blekinge (178), the coastal parts of these areas being covered more or less complete in 2019.

In the first years of counts in September small numbers of Gadwalls were counted. Numbers started to increase in the late 1990s. The total counted in September 2018, 5397, was the highest for the series. A large part of them were found on the two large bird lakes Hornborgasjön (1610) and Tåkern (3250), which also had high counts in earlier September counts.

Unfortunately there are no published trends for the entire NW Europe so the situation in Sweden cannot be put into trhe larger context.

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