Pochard Aythya ferina

The Pochard is distributed as a breeding species in the southern part of the country and is especially found in eutrophic lakes. During migration periods the species is well spread on staging areas in south Sweden sometimes occurring in very large flocks on some shallow lakes or in bays in the archipelagos.

September counts are very variable between years, sometimes very large flocks are found in one or two sites, whereas in other years only smaller flocks are found. Very large flocks were found at Lake Hornborgasjön and Lake Tåkern in September some years with a maximum count at Tåkern of 31000 (2014) and at Hornborgasjön around 10000. In September 2015 less than 1000 were found in Tåkern, which experienced a marked shift in the vegetation.These numbers indicate that Pochards come to these sites from vast areas as the numbers counted are much higher than the total estimated breeding population of the country.

During winter the Pochard is a regular wintering birds in the big flocks of Tufted Ducks in south Sweden but flocks of Pochards are also found in some regions, especially the archipelago of Blekinge in the southeast corner of the country, where flocks of up to thousand Pochards have been seen in January.

The longterm trends for September and January were highly significant and increasing. This marked increase in the Swedish indices for the Pochard is in marked contrast to the general development in the populations breeding in Europe and Russia (Fox et al. 2016 Wildfowl 66:22-40).The Swedish indices reflect changes in the distribution during autumn and winter and not a change in the populations.

Numbers counted at the country-wide coastal survey in 2015 was not so high, 1200 counted. Numbers might be somewhat higher as small numbers of Pochard in the large flocks of Tufted Ducks could easily be mnissed. The corresponding totals for 1971 and 2004 were 92 and 2660. The Hanöbukten area in the southeast part of the country dominated strongly (se map).