Swans Excursion ?

Our Swan family headed out to Sea around mid day, and at Sunset tonight they had still not returned.
The weather is fine and settled with growing tides this week, ideal conditions for scouting along the coastline, perhaps even returning to their original homeland ?  Slim has been disappearing 2 or 3 times a week in recent times, perhaps yearning for home territory or maybe just in need of some fresh greens.

The sunset tonight was spectacular as it often is in this part of the world.

NEW GENERATION SWAN CALENDAR

The River Nairn Swans and Waterfowl Trust Calendar Limited Edition is now available.

Because of Covid 19, the print has been limited mainly to Trust Members. However, there will be a few available to the public from the Nairn Bookshop. All profits go to the welfare of the Birds. 

Late Ducklings - Early Autumn ?

The season for Ducklings has so far been good. 

The Virus lockdown helped earlier in the year giving the wildlife a little more peace to nest. The current surviving total on the lower river is 49, which includes the 15 released by the Trust some time ago. 

Was only 3 days ago that we had the latest hatching of 8 ducklings, preceded 3 weeks ago by another 9.   All are thriving, and there is still a chance of even more turning up at this late stage.

 The late broods are becoming more common and are also more successful at surviving. The reasons I believe the mother ducks are catching on to later nesting are - less predation, more cover, more food available, warmer temperatures, shorter nights, and less pressure from Drakes that have started moulting. I note that the current mothers also had late hatching last year, and have learned to repeat the process. 

This bodes well for the future, as their offspring are also likely to nest later in the year. If you see the current ducklings, Please don't throw bread on top of them, as this will only draw down predatory Gulls and crows on them.

Heron River Diet

Over the years I have observed the resident birds on our river. 

The Heron has always been present and makes for good photos, standing sentinel like and rarely moving. 

Don't be fooled by this pose, the reflexes on this species are lighting fast when it comes to catching food. 

Anything that's alive is on the menu, fish or fowl, anything goes with this character. 

Here are some of the images I captured out with his normal sentinel stance. Some people don't believe they eat ducklings, the images below should dispel that thought.

The Mother duck could only watch as the heron swallowed it alive !

This bird is feared by others, especially when their young are around.

Paddle Power

Sue is still flightless, but should be able to fly at the end of the month with her new feathers growing out rapidly. 

The Cygnets too are growing fast, and meanwhile paddling around exercising their wings and feet. Perfectly adapted for powering through water, and joints that allow for rapid rotation.

People often think they have injured legs when resting them on their backs. Two Short video clips below. 

SWANS TRAGEDY to TRIUPH

About a week before Sue hatched her cygnets, I received an email from a lady called Claire Alexandre down in Lancashire. She had been told about the Nairn swans island and this website by a Trust member living in the Manchester area. Claire told me a heartbreaking story which had been on the local TV, Radio, and newspapers. The story relates to a pair of Swans that had nested on the bank of a local lake for the first time and laid 6 eggs. 

Local people were delighted and watched eagerly for weeks waiting on the big day. About a day or so before hatching, 3 youths scared the birds from the nest and cruelly threw a large concrete slab on top of the nest !!

They killed all 6 baby cygnets that were fully formed with down and ready for hatching, it was a despicable, vicious  act and enraged the whole community who were heartbroken. The Female Swan was also heartbroken and franticly swam beside the nest and crushed eggs!
The Police and RSPCA are hunting the youths, and Claire set up a funding page on the internet - justice for Swans. Having heard about The River Nairn swans island, Claire wanted to raise funds to see if they could build an island for their distraught swans, hence the email to me.
I was pretty enraged hearing the story, and only too glad to be of assistance. 

I asked Claire to send me some photos of the lake and surrounding banks etc. Within a week of setting up her funding page, Claire had raised over £3000, from a sympathetic public.

Having looked at the photos Claire sent, it was clear to me with a path all round the lakeside the swans nesting at the edge was just not viable, with fishing allowed, people, and dogs constantly passing by. Building an Island in the middle of the lake sounded ideal. Having done some research on floating islands, this I suggested to Claire might be the best option for her lake. 


Claire was hard at work, checking out floating island manufacturers, the local council rangers and other parties trying to get things done. She has done a fantastic job getting the local council on board, and people involved in the project. I was sure that providing the swans with a safe platform of vegetation well away from the banks, dogs and fishermen, it would be used for nesting next year. 
Today I received an email from Claire with the following photos. 

The funding will pay for the island and the local council have agreed to maintain it in the future.

The Council rangers installed and anchored the island with a growing medium spread over. Prior to nesting next year I have suggested that they should spread several inches of straw over the island, and leave it for the swans to do the rest. 

Claire said the swans were watching the installation from a distance last week, and a few days later one of their group members spotted the swans sitting on the island ! 

She is delighted with the success, and so am I. Her compassion and commitment to fundraising and the project is inspiring, extract from Claire's email to me this morning -

"Thank you once again for your time, knowledge and advice, it really was invaluable and very very much appreciated."  

It's nice to know that Nairn Swans island inspired others. I can hardly wait until next spring to see Claire's Swan project triumph !

Wings

Now two months old, the cygnets just eat, sleep, and grow. Their wings are the last thing to grow, and they have now started to develop real feathers as the down starts to go. 

Their Mum Sue has also discarded her old feathers and should have nice new ones by the end of the month. 

Flight training should start in September, but Slim will have discarded his feathers and will take a month to grow new ones. He will most likely miss out on the initial flight training, but all will be flying by October.

Rehab Rewards

Following on the previous post, some of my memorable rehab moments came to mind. 

                            In 2015 our longest resident Cob, Popeye was very ill and sent  away for 2 weeks veterinary treatment. 

On his return I kept him in the aviary for a day to make sure I could release him safely back to his family, as the river was in spate.

               The reunion was awesome. Listen to the welcome from his family in the short video below, they may be called Mute Swans - but not on that day !

The photos show his return, the fantastic welcome and close bond with his partner Penny, it was magic !

Every day on the riverside I get a reminder from Woody, a Woodpigeon I saved back in 2013, after it was blown out of a  nest during  a Gale. 

Two  Short videos below of Woody being tube fed when a squab, and again enjoying a bit of Spinach shortly before his release. 

That was 7 years ago, but he still flies to see me most days on the riverside - the best rehab reward I could ever have !

10 Years Bird Rehabbing - How I Started

Was really by chance that I got involved in caring for injured birds. My daily visits to the river  feeding Popeye, Penny and their cygnets was therapeutic and joyful. On a few occasions I saw  

Penny and the cygnets entangled in fishing line and found myself catching them to remove the hooks and line. Sometimes the line was barely visible, and only my closeness to them was able to spot it.

The biggest shock came on a Sunday in July 2010, when the family was attacked by a dog on the river bank. Penny had moulted and was frantically trying to protect her cygnets but was bitten on her wings and side. The dog owner eventually pulled the dog off, and the family escaped down to the Harbour. Being so attached to this family of swans I had to do something and contacted Sue Hulbert who has a small sanctuary down in Swindon, but decades of experience on treating injured Swans. She told me it was vital to get antibiotics into Penny ASAP, as dog bites were prone to causing infection.  She also told me the dose to administer - but how? Once again my closeness saved the day, as I could give the antibiotic orally with my habit of feeding her.

Happily after 10 days treatment, she survived and went on to produce over 50 cygnets since that year.

The same year, again by chance, one of the neighbours children pointed to a young herring gull walking the street with a broken trailing wing. She asked me to fix it, I said I would try,
knowing nothing about bird anatomy and was tempted to call the SSPCA. I was told that they would almost certainly put it to sleep as was common practice with broken winged birds. After contacting Sue Hulbert again, she advised me to use a self sealing vet bandage and have a go at setting the wing into position by feeling and manipulating the break. After a couple of pecks, I realised handling a struggling bird is not easy, until you put an elastic band over it's beak and wrap it in a towel ! Another thing I did not realise was the fact that mending a broken bone has to be done before the break callouses over, by then it's too late to reposition them. Luckily I could feel the bones moving apart in two places. 

Wrapped the bird up and freed the broken wing to apply the bandage folding it into what I hoped would be the right position. 

Removing the elastic band and bird from my lap, the result was now in the lap of the gods !  I called it Steven Seagull, and had it for 13 months before successful rehab release. The story of Steven has been viewed on YouTube 20k times    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuxjNuflsTQ&feature=em-comments 
I think that was the moment that really started me looking at injured wild birds in a new way.

Over the years I've had many failures too, the fragility of birds, my inexperience, mistakes and accidents, have all contributed.

The happiness and joy seeing some of my successes fly to my hand or door, and wildfowl that swim close to me is priceless. 

Bonding with another species makes you realise that we humans could do so much better than we do, to protect this special Planet and all the life on it.

My Thanks to Sue in Swindon, and Elizabeth in Denver, for their expertise and help over the years.