Year two of the pandemic, and the virus is currently rampant. There is also outbreaks of avian flu in the south of the country. This is an ongoing threat, and we can only hope it does not show up here ! It has been a very successful year on the river, and thought I would share some of the high points that helped me get through the pandemic so far. Resilience is something the birds show me all the time, be it Slim, Sue and the cygnets, or Doris, ducklings, and Disco, with their infirmities, or the Robins and Dunnocks with their survival strategies.
Last winter we were hit with a cold snap that almost froze over the entire river.
We had a hungry Swan arriving in Mid winter looking for sanctuary, and started Moulting ! This was totally out of Character for a female swan at that time of year. She was in danger of being killed by Slim, and I had no choice but to remove her from the river until she re grew her new plumage.
I called her Briget as she knew the river well and was obviously reared there years before. It was a challenge with the small garden pond freezing over almost every night.
But we managed, and she was eventually released into the Beauly firth.
Also during that time, Slim and Sue had still not chased their first offspring away from the river.
Being first time parents they did not appear to know just how to offload their 3 cygnets, and only managed one at a time right up until a couple of weeks before nesting again in March!
During January, Slim and Sue started Bonding, with the longer days starting to show. The video clip below, shows them busily bonding with still 2 of their offspring watching the proceeding close up !
Both of them saw off every intrusion by other Swans looking for a prime nesting site.
From the 14th May, the cygnets started to hatch, with the final one hatching on the 17th. This 100% success was short lived as the Crows managed to kill 2 of them within the first few days. Slim tried his best to save one, and chased the Crow persistently until the Crow dropped the cygnet at the rivers edge.
Although I retrieved the cygnet from the harbour and put it back with Slim and Sue, it was taken by the Crows later that day. Slim and Sue have learned a valuable lesson about Predatory Crows and how dangerous they are to their offspring.
The Trust was fortunate to acquire a new Secretary in the spring, Iona Gibson who offered her talents freely, for the benefit of the birds and the local environment.
Not just a pretty face, as a Trustee she designed this years Calendar, produced some gift cards, helped with repairs to the Moat and some litter picking as well.
Watching the cygnets grow over the year has been a joy to Locals and visitors alike, a welcome distraction from the Covid !
They are currently still in the river, and probably wont be chased off until we are heading for spring.
Early May, we had a surprising exotic visitor.. a Mandarin duck.
He was a real eye catcher and stayed on the island for about 3 weeks,
sharing the daily feed with the mallards, I hope he returns next year !
Disco our resident Disabled duck, produced a massive clutch of 17 eggs nesting outdoors for the first time, instead of the coop as previous years. With only a week to go before hatching, she was spooked off the nest late one cold night...by a Mouse ! After 3 or 4 hours she would not return to the nest and the eggs were cold. I made a decision to take some indoors and put them in the incubator n the hope that some might survive. I went to bed at 2am and Disco was still off the nest. The next morning she was on the nest and sat tight all day, but again the Mouse must have got under her nest for the warmth and spooked her off again! I was certain the eggs would not survive as they were stone cold before she returned to sit again.
Meanwhile I candled the eggs in the incubator and was astonished to see signs of life.. in all of them ! A few days later they hatched, followed a day later by disco's, all of them hatched ! This was true resilience, and proves the point that a nest with cold eggs does not mean they will not survive.
Then July after Disco's ducklings were released into the river, I was informed about a duck that had been run over with 10 ducklings in tow. They were rescued initially by Lyndy Geddes at the scene, and informed me within an hour of the accident. I collected the Duck with a badly broken leg and her 10 ducklings that had escaped injury.
Having treated injured ducks before, I gave her a painkiller and immobilsed the broken leg, putting her and the ducklings into a spare coop. A trip to the vet the following morning was negative and looked like the choice of euthanise or crippled duck. I decided to phone our avian adviser and explained the position and that I thought the best course of action was to soft splint the leg in a forward semi sitting position, with the addition of pain killer anti inflammatory and antibiotic treatment and see what happens.
Our avian adviser agreed and I reset the leg and started the treatment. Two weeks later I removed the soft splint and crossed my fingers. I called the duck Doris, and she hopped out of the coop occasionally putting down the leg avoiding weight on it.
I thought at least she would be able to use it as a prop to get around. This looked like it might be the end result..
but slowly she started to use the leg more and more and my hopes rose for a better result.
She reared her ducklings for the next 9 weeks in the garden, and was delighted when we released her and her ducklings back to the river,
where she still resides today !
Also saved a few other injured birds during the year, but the main catch was 2 ducklings Saffron and Ebony.
Seeing a little yellow duckling maybe once every few years, but this year a duck turned up with 3 yellow and 4 dark ones. I knew the Crows would have them within days and decided to catch the Yellow ones if possible. I left it for a day and the Crows had one, the following day they had another. I donned the waders and finally caught the last one and a dark sibling.
The yellow one is female and the sibling male, they are now sharing the garden and pond with Disco, who I hope, will mate with the sibling next year.
The yellow one hopefully will mate with another Drake from the river.
Would like to Thank all those Trust members who have helped support our river wildlife
The whole years postings can be seen by clicking on the Months on the left side of the homepage.
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