Beautiful Birds

The more I watch them the more I appreciate beautiful birds. With the drop in temperature the birds are looking forward to their food, and I was given a lovely welcome today down by the Merryton bridge. The cob and some cygnets spotted me from below the island and decided on a shuttle flight for their grub, camera out in time to get a few flight shots. The cob arrived first followed by the cygnets all of which flew really well , one of them had a pre - landing wobble, but corrected for a perfect splashdown ! The last pic is of Lefty the cygnet that had the angel wing, flying and landing like a trooper ! In addition someone sent me a youtube link of a fantastic nature video which will bring a lump to your throat. Well worth a look ! http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=SkY03n0_sD8&vq=medium

Chief Gurner Rises to the Top

I note that Nairn's Chief Gurner, aka the Gurnmeister, aka Graisg, aka Des Scholes our New river community councillor to be -intends to raise the river pollution issue at the next River Community Council meeting. I have long felt that the RCC should have pressed Scottish water and SEPA for more action to prevent sewage leakages into the river. Previously highlighted pollution incidents on both the "Gurnnurn.com" and this blog, have given graphic images of unacceptable pollution into a clean Salmon river, and only a few hundred yards from our tourist beaches ! I did send a comment to Des but he saw fit not to publish it, which is his right of course. The gist of which was that I advised the resident adjacent to the brochers brae leak to contact SEPA,(Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) since she has young children that play in that contaminated area. She said she had spoken to Scottish water and that they said that funds were not available to fix the leak ! They then turned up with a 5 gallon drum of disinfectant and splashed it all over the grass beside the leak. I told the resident that she should in fact be talking to SEPA since they have the powers to make Scottish water solve the problem. Since Des has highlighted the issue yet again and as a new Community Councillor, I asked if he would take action on this matter ? He seems to have risen to the challenge, good luck Des ! (Previous pics of River pollution enclosed, swans were swimming in and drinking it on Oct 1st above.)

Catching The Rays

Glorious sunshine today....so rare this year ! With talk of another Arctic winter looming, it's lovely to catch some rays along with the last of the years butterflies. In April we had what many of us thought was the start of a long hot summer, butterflies and all. May saw the weather go downhill and along with all the insect life, Summer did not arrive at all. Virtually the only butterflies I saw this year were a Tortoiseshell in April and Peacock in October !

Swanning Around

The Cygnets are getting whiter by the day, and Lefty - the one that had the angel wing is the whitest of them all. They have daily visits to the sea, and the young cygnet that tagged along earlier in the week is still around the shoreline. The pen was looking restless, she went out of her way to chase the young cygnet out to sea. Short vid of the family swanning around in the moat, with Lefty the whitest of them all in the foreground.

All at Sea

The banished cygnet again joined our family at sea today, only to be shunned again as they returned to the river. The lone cygnet was left offshore to brave the elements, watched by our River seal who was fishing at the end of the pier. Yesterday 3 young year old swans arrived in the river only to be ousted by our cob within minutes of their arrival, It could well have been their offspring from last year.

Cygnet Banished

The new cygnet that joined the Nairn swans yesterday, was banished today. It was still there this morning but being harassed continuously by one particular cygnet. The pen finally got fed up with it and decided to separate the newcomer from the family. I watched along with the swan family, as she escorted it from the island to the moat. (The enclosed pics tell the story ). Later in the afternoon I watched as the cygnets flew in from the sea minus the new cygnet ! Peace has been restored on the river, and it looks like our swan family have no intention of leaving the river yet ! Sad that they chased the young cygnet away, hopefully it will find it's family or another welcoming flock.

Cygnapped !

Notice anything different about the Nairn cygnets ? There are now 10 of them ! I'm so used to seeing them piling into the moat and getting stuck into the wheat I rarely count them. Today was odd because one of the cygnets appeared to be getting attacked from time to time by one of the other cygnets in particular. This kind of activity is fairly normal at this stage in their growth, and the parents tend to ignore it - they were not bothered at all. At one stage the harassed cygnet got out of the moat came close to me and hunkered down for a sleep ! After a while they all headed over to the island and then I realised there were 10 cygnets instead of 9. Obviously they have cygnapped an addition to the flock this morning, making it an even dozen. This one has probably just been chased away by it's parents and has joined our lot at sea thinking it's a flock, this is normal for Swans to seek the first flock and join it. I get the impression the new cygnet is a female because it's smaller, and seemed to be getting attacked by one of our female cygnets...a bit of female jealousy perhaps ! It will be interesting to see how this effects the family and if it will be allowed to stay with them until they all leave. Perhaps it's one of the Brodie or Forres cygnets, will one of our young cobs take a fancy to it ? Interesting times lie ahead !

Steven Seagael Shows Up !

What a great surprise on an otherwise dreich morning, I spotted Steven my seagull mate on the river ! I was feeding the ducks when he walked over from the riverside, he is whiter and looks in good health, obviously not starving to death. I have only seen him once since releasing him on the beach a couple of months ago. After seeing him fly I was confident he would survive OK, which is just as well with the Mink on the prowl.

Eleven Swans a Swimming

Our 3 day Indian Summer has vanished, and Autumn rules again with leaden skies and steady rain for half the day. The storm drains were again overflowing into the river, and it felt like Scotland again instead of the Costa Del Moray. Being the first of October I took the usual reference shots of the Swans - now four and a half months old and almost as big as their parents. Size is not the only similarity, if you observe the top pic you will see the pen and one of her offspring side by side. The small v notch on the side of her bill (where the black meets the orange bill) has been passed on to her offspring, it's these small marks that allows me to follow some of the Swans now and in the future. October is often the month that Swans chase their offspring away, we shall await the parents action on this...but don't hold your breath for they may keep them a few months yet ! I have to say they are looking good and many comments from holiday makers from all parts of the country who have never seen a family of 9 cygnets ever !

Predators Strike Again !

I was dismayed to see 2 of the new Khaki Campbell ducks disappear from the harbour days after this post.

http://simplysuperbswans.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-ducks.html Since then the remaining two moved into the river among the mallards, and up until 3 days ago another one went missing, leaving only one ! I did realise that these domestic type ducks had either been clipped or moulted and were unable to fly - making them especially vulnerable to predators. This morning I could see no sign of the last remaining Khaki duck, so checked the island to see if it was there. Sadly I found a dead Khaki near the top of the island, it had been pretty well stripped of it's flesh and was developing maggots, must have been killed several days ago. It looked like the work of a Mink, but I suppose could also have been an Otters handiwork. The growing number of predators on the river might well be killing other species too, like the Heron. One of the riverside residents told me that last monday night the Swans were hissing and warding off something about 11pm. This would be about the time this duck was killed. I have contacted the Water Bailiff to see if he can re-bait the mink traps before we lose any more ducks! The Mallard drake with the broken wing that I couldn't catch has also disappeared, inability to fly is pretty well a death sentence to any waterbirds.

Local residents overlooking the river have told me of massive duck commotion at night, this indicates predators attacking during the hours of darkness. I am saddened by the loss of these khaki ducks, for they were particularly attractive and added a bit of colour to the river. The mortality rate in the past 10 days is at least 5 ducks that I know of, this is unsustainable and will somehow have to be stopped ! A complete species wiped out, gives you and idea of how deadly mink are to ground nesting birds !

Wigeon

In Addition to the 6 goosander seen recently another new arrival on the river today, a female Wigeon. I noticed it feeding among the grasses at high tide along with the Mallards, it was still there after the tide went out. Smaller than the Mallard, they sometimes follow Swans and coots and eat mainly vegetation.

"HAPPY" The Movie.

As a member and follower of Action for Happiness, I have been invited to the premiere of "Happy" the Movie on October the 19th. This will be held in London's Notting hill gate at the Coronet Cinema. I wont be going, but have indicated I would like Nairn to see this film.
Action for Happiness presents... HAPPY: the movie, Does money make you happy? What about family? Do we live in a world that values well-being? Are we in the midst of a happiness revolution? Roko Belic, director of Academy Award nominated "Genghis Blues" brings us HAPPY, a film exploring the secrets behind our most valued emotion. (click on the link for a short trailer.)

I have contacted the events Manager of action for Happiness to see if the film can be shown here in Nairn. It is the intention to have this film shown throughout the UK as widely as possible.

Also emailed Cinema Nairn to see if they would be interested in screening this movie. I hope I can arrange a showing and spread the Happy message....we could all do with some of it ! Watch this space !

We Have Lift Off !

Favourable downstream winds encouraged the Cygnets to yet again have a go at flying today. Sure enough the undercarraige went up and most of them flew a few feet from the water before splashdown, it was exciting to see. With settled weather forecast this coming week and suitable tides, they should be flying at some point every day - keep your eyes open for action.