Head down to Gartmorn Dam this weekend and there is every chance that you will see tufted ducks bobbing out on the steely grey water.

October and November are great months to see tufted ducks as large numbers of winter migrants arrive on our shores to augment our own native population. In fact, many of these migrant birds replace our home breeders, who themselves often move further south and west to Ireland, especially if the weather is particularly cold.

After the mallard, these fine looking birds are probably our most familiar type of duck and they are widespread on suitable areas of still water throughout central Scotland. Indeed, Scotland used to be the main stronghold of the tufted duck in Britain, although they have spread into much of England over the last 150 years or so. This may have been in part aided by the arrival of the freshwater zebra mussel from Continental Europe, which was first recorded in London docks in the 19th century, given that molluscs are a principal food of tufted ducks. They also eat a range of other invertebrates and some plant life.

The drake is easily recognised by his distinctive black-and-white colouring, drooping crest and vivid yellow eye. The female is brown all over and the crest is only slightly developed.

The tufted duck is an expert diver and can get down to depths of 6ft or more, with each dive usually lasting about 15 seconds. Generally, they spend much of the day floating idly in areas of open water but as night falls they come close to the shore of a loch to feed.

You would think that being out on the water is a safe place for tufted ducks, but this is not always the case. There is an interesting recent record where a 25lb pike was found dead on the shores of a Perthshire loch after having apparently choked to death on an adult tufted duck that it had tried to swallow whole! The unfortunate duck was found still lodged in the pike’s throat.