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With virtually no river spates this year, the latest weather forecasts are about to change all that with warnings of potential flooding for the north of Scotland !
Stormy weather and heavy rain combined with low pressure and high tides, this week will see a dramatic change in river conditions locally.
With so many young and vulnerable water birds on the lower river, I hope their parents will guide them safely through the expected flood waters, with no new hatches turning up at this time.
Sadly 2 of the rescued ducklings that I released have been killed in the harbour yesterday. With this weeks high spring tides I saw 5 of the ducklings up at the Merryton bridge, and thought maybe they had just been separated after leaving the harbour. This has been my main fear after their release, that they would fall victim to predators before they got river wise to the dangers.
I released them before the spring tides so that they would gain a weeks experience before the high tides during the night. The harbour can be a safe place, but also a death trap if used by the Otters, Mink or Seals for hunting.
The good news is that the other 5 are now close to their Mum, and Sari and Joe are still alive !
If they can survive the next 5 days tides, they should be pretty well integrated with all the other ducks and aware of all the dangers.
I hope our new
Trust members have now received your membership cards posted recently.
This weeks High tides, shows the potential for the "regenerated" area to be partly used by the waterbirds as a dabbling area. When the tide is high they have very little areas to use other than the small bit at the Seaman's hall. Planting some reeds and rushes would complement the low flooded part and encourage frogs, toads and small creatures to benefit the wildlife.
It appears the road bridge re-painting is finished, and it looks a lot smarter - I hope the Swans ability to see the rails, avoids any future collisions !
The lucky 7 ducklings are thriving, and I should be able to get them out into the Aviary next week. Short video of this mornings bath time below.
For those of you seeking the 10 keys to happiness check out this link
PS With the high tides I've seen no sign of the rat hoard !
Since losing one of the white ducks a couple of weeks ago, I have been particularly concerned with the welfare of the last remaining white duck. She has been trying hard to get a new mate, and has homed in on another hybrid like herself. This I find fascinating, because she has all the regular Mallards to choose from, but has set her sights on one particular male hybrid. He is one of the five or six drake offspring survivors of Blondie, a beautiful duck that was killed a few years back.
He is slightly larger than a pure Mallard drake but without the white ring around the neck, this is how to tell the hybrid drakes compared to the regular Mallards. He lets her tag along but as yet he is not besotted with her, he is learning though that if he sticks close to her when I'm feeding them, he gets a good share ! With high tides during the night throughout the coming week, I only hope she is spared long enough to complete the bonding with her new found love !
