New Brood

Pleasant surprise on the Swans island this evening, another Duck with 9 ducklings newly hatched. Today at last gave us some respite from the cold northerly winds, and allowed the ducklings to catch a few flies. We currently have four separate broods, of 3, 5, 7, and 9, all of them under a week old - the losses as far as I'm aware are now 49. It looks like many of the ducks that lost their nests to the April flood, have had second clutches now coming on stream. I also know of at least two ducks sitting and should soon have broods, lets hope the crows have other prey in their sights meanwhile. I also noticed a drake with a broken wing this evening, with another one found dead recently I hope we don't have a local villain homing on on the poor ducks ! Needless to say, if you see any abuse of the river wildlife call the police or Scottish SPCA.

The duck with 5 ducklings was escorted by her mate this evening, this is quite rare because the drakes usually have little to do with a ducks brood.