Gadwall

Photo by Ken Nanney

Gadwall - Village Creek Drying Beds, Tarrant County, November 29, 2010

Photo by Ken Nanney

Gadwall - Village Creek Drying Beds, Tarrant County, October 18, 2008

Photo by Ken Nanney

Gadwall - Village Creek Drying Beds, Tarrant County, October 18, 2008

Photo by Ken Nanney

Gadwall with ducklings. July 9, 1993 (First sighting June 19, 1993). Stock tank near Millers Creek Lake. Weinert 079 Breeding Bird Survey. Throckmorton County.

I first sighted a Gadwall hen with a brood of small ducklings and another nearby adult female Gadwall on this pond at a stop of the Weinert BBS route. Returning to the site three weeks later I found the original female with her surviving larger ducklings (pictured) and the second hen now had a brood of small ducklings of her own. A follow up trip very late in the summer found no Gadwalls at the stock tank. A lone adult male Gadwall had been seen flying very near this same stock tank on the previous year's BBS. As far as I know this is the first documented breeding record for this species in North Central Texas and one of the few for the state as a whole [Ken Nanney].