Look What I've Got !

In spite of the appalling weather during incubation, Penny has pulled it off yet again, her opening of the wings was almost an exclamation of - Look What I've Got ! Well done Penny and Popeye for giving us another brood of beautiful cygnets ! The first out of the nest was joined by another and they had a getting to know you session, They had their first look at me - I am keen to see what the final total will be. What we need now is a spell of warm conditions, to encourage the growth of river weed for the cygnets to eat !

Cygnets Arrive !

My hatching date for the cygnets was pencilled in the calendar for the 14/15 May. Penny did not disappoint and even gave me a peek of what is going on today. My first glimpse was a tiny head sticking out from under a wing, after some time Penny decided to stand up and give me the first showing of her cygnets. I could count 5 heads but think that some are still in the process of hatching. Thank God the wind has eased and a ray of sunshine greeted the new brood, it is always special to witness the birth of a new brood of cygnets. Penny left them to the care of Popeye and went down to the Moat calling on her cygnets. She then decided they were not yet fit for the water and went back up to the nest where one cygnet had clambered over the side. Both parents gave it a close inspection, then Penny climbed back onto the nest for a preen and look at her new brood. After a while she settled down again to continue with the hatch. I estimate there should be at least 9 cygnets assuming they all hatch of course, more later !

Winter Windbreak !

With gales lashing the North of Scotland today, it feels like Winter and the birds are acting accordingly. Popeye was doing the heroic thing, acting as a windbreak for Penny on the exposed nest site. I only hope this gale blows over before the cygnets are hatched. The swans incubation suffered every variation in the weather imaginable, snow, frost, flood, wind and rain ! 
My beautiful duck that lost it's nest to the flood, was again robbed of her new nest and eggs at the hand of vandals. She chose to nest under the only bush that was left by the contractors of the new pipeline installation at Brochers brae. Yesterday vandals knocked over the site fencing and scared her off the nest, allowing the gulls to see and destroy her eggs. Those who think the ducks are plentiful should think about the results this year, as far as I am aware from the factors down to the harbour. Twenty six ducklings hatched and ALL KILLED, also 4 nests flooded and/or washed away, one nest vandalised, eggs lost - approx 46. No surviving ducklings so far ! We will see how many succeed from up river this year. Make no mistake, the wildlife have a very tough time trying to survive, they need our respect, protection and cooperation.

Paternal Support

With yet another big spate yesterday, it may well have spelled the end for the last 5 ducklings. I have looked carefully but see no sign of any of them. The only hope is that maybe the mother managed to get them somewhere safe upstream, I fear all 26 hatched so far have gone.

Penny managed to get down from the nest this morning, for a stock up of grain and a clean up before returning to the nest. Popeye was close at hand with paternal support, and likely to remain very close from now on for the imminent hatching.

Fortitude

Fortitude, That's something that we all need during this erratic spell of weather, and the forecast seems bleak for the coming week too. The wildlife seem to take it in their stride, whether sitting on eggs or covering up their newly hatched ducklings. The Mother with the surviving 5 still has them, but I see no sign of the mother with one.

Still Wintry

The weather is still too cold for the time of year, and we seem to be stuck with the constant Baltic breeze. It was brighter today but still cold. The duck that had 10 ducklings three days ago is now down to 4, but another Mother turned up tonight with 2 ducklings one of which she promptly lost to the Mother with 4. The tiny day old ducklings basically follow any female that looks and sounds like their Mother ! It's unusual for a duck to only have two ducklings, so I expect she started with more than that. So the latest tally, out of 4 lots totalling 26 there is 6 remaining - I suspect for not very long though, the cold and lack of insects will hasten their demise. The forecast for more Wintry weather is also bad news for the Swans hatching next week, they will have to be on guard for the hoodies and Blackback gulls - both of which have had cygnets before !

Riverside Litter

harbour car wash litter ?

While we all await the new cygnet and duckling arrivals, something that cheers us all and beautifies our river environment. We have the other side of the coin with the persistent litter louts who basically don't give a toss, and would have us all up to the knees in litter. I took the enclosed photo yesterday behind the harbour carwash fence - someone appears to have tossed a heap of litter out of their car whilst giving it a clean, maybe it says something for what they value most in this life ? Maybe our newly elected councillors can see to it that it gets cleaned up, it's easy to spot among the decimated council shrub clearance of last January ! 

Hard Times

Spotted another Duck with 10 Ducklings yesterday morning, by the evening she had 7...mid-day today it's 6. Times are extremely tough for the ducks just now, and the weather is Baltic. These conditions deprive the ducklings of much needed insects for protein, in addition to all the predators too ! Trying to survive is very very hard ! 
Unless we get warmer conditions soon there will be no weed available for the new cygnets either, the recent flood scoured the river bare !

Grateful to Gary

Today's high tide gave me an opportunity to try and rid the Moat of the huge tree root stuck there. I donned the chest waders and struggled and moved the monster for half an hour, before giving up when it stuck fast. Local tradesman and wind surfing enthusiast Gary Reid saw my struggles, offered to don his wetsuit and have a go at shifting it. Gary heroically grappled with the monster, pulling, pushing and rocking it over the stones and ultimately swimming it into midstream to be carried off with the ebb tide ! I tried to take a photo of Gary's triumph but my camera was soaked - although I had it in a top pocket ...what a cost to keep the moat clear. My Grateful thanks to Gary !

Final Countdown

The final countdown to the big hatching day has started, will Penny produce 9 cygnets yet again ? I reckon Popeye and Penny are about 11 years old now....maybe they'll surprise us all with 11 cygnets ! They are pretty well in their prime , but could continue to produce offspring for another decade if they live that long and keep the intruders out ! Penny had another break from the nest today in the warm sunshine, while Popeye raced up to guard the nest during the short break. Meanwhile a hoodie crow checked out the huge tree root as a future vantage point for attack. The duck I reared last year that just lost it's nest to the last high tide, paid me the usual visit for a handout.

May Day Maintenance

Today's glorious sunshine allowed me to tackle a little bit of Swans Island maintenance. Some giant hogweed has sprouted in several places and had to be sprayed with roundup. I find this is the most effective way of killing the young hogweed, but you do need about 12 hours of fine dry weather and a low tide after spraying. There were quite a few tree seedlings taking root which also had to be removed. The usual litter also had to be collected at the same time. Meanwhile Penny took the opportunity of a bite to eat and a bath, before resuming the long incubation. I got a once only chance for a new angle on penny's view from the nest, Damn cold place to sit for weeks on end though ! A pair of Goldfinch were busily collecting soft lining for their nests too. 

Half Ton Shingle Shifter

The legacy of last weeks Spate is strewn all over the beach, and changed the course of the river yet again. The swans island moat has a huge half ton tree root sitting at the end of it. This hulk has no doubt shifted thousands of tons of river shingle on it's way downstream, and probably changed quite a few salmon pools too. I can only hope that next months spring tide will remove it, otherwise it could sit there until we get another flood.

Again nature has dealt a blow to many ducks nests, with many being flooded out, but Penny our Sitting Swan has been spared because there was no high tide to threaten the nest. This has been a tough nesting time with Snow, wind and rain for the past month. It will be interesting to see if she has preserved all her clutch intact, and if they will all hatch next month. It shows the wisdom of the Swans not nesting early when the weather was good, it could have spelt disaster for any hatched young in the past week. Meanwhile the Jackdaws are into their nesting season, and many now picking up dog hair and feathers to line their nests.

Raging River

We all knew we were going to pay for that glorious March weather....aren't we just ! Non stop wind and rain for days on end, and the river bursting it's banks in several places. Some recent comments about the wisdom of me feeding the birds was literally cast to the wind  - there were some mighty grateful birds lining up for a welcome feed today. The river was in a  raging spate and the birds had no source of feeding available...except for the Goosanders which incredibly were still managing to fish the edges with some success.

Predators 14 Ducks 0

Today I witnessed the last poor duckling being taken by a hoodie crow. The Mother duck was unable to fend off two Hoodie's as they worked their routine to take the last of the 14 hatched ducklings so far. My language to describe what I felt about those crows today is not fit for publication, suffice to say my anger is immense. The enclosed pic of the mother and duckling I took some 20 minutes before it was ambushed. 

The Last One

How sad it is to see only one duckling left out of 14 hatched so far. This morning she still had the two and the tide was well in, yet this afternoon at 4pm she showed up with only one. So much for those who think there are loads of ducks on the river. Up until now I know of 2 ducks that have lost all their eggs to the tide, and the other two who had 14 ducklings between them now have only 1 left ...it will also probably be lost ! This would make it 4 adults with no survivors.

Cold Killer

As feared, the first lot of ducklings have been decimated. There are only two ducklings left from the 14 that started from two recent hatches. The mother duck lost 4 yesterday, and two this afternoon. The cold weather has prompted fierce activity from the Hoodie Crows, and they are picking off the ducklings at will. It's heartbreaking to see the disproportionate slaughter inflicted by two or three crows on the river duck population !

Drilled Ducklings

Sometimes luck and timing just catches the shot right. This was the case today when the mother with eight ducklings (she lost one since yesterday evening), gathered them together on a bank. It looks like the one in the corner is getting the other four to stand to attention !

Delightful Duck Drama

What an amazing day, and I'm yet again astounded by the wonder of ducks ! Today the sewage pipe contractors arrived to dig out the old leaking pipe along the riverside. I knew there was a ducks nest just a foot away from this pipe and perched 10 feet above the river. I asked the Contractor yesterday to avoid disturbing the duck on her nest since it was due to hatch anytime.

The contractor ignored my request and continued to tear away the old sewer wall, when I went to investigate the condition of the nest, the contractor said the duck was on the nest and some had hatched. What I found was a nest with 5 unhatched eggs in it. I checked the condition of the eggs and they had not pipped, meaning they were not about to hatch and were probably dead.

I anxiously searched the river for the duck and within minutes I spotted her with 7 tiny ducklings in tow ! She had hatched them in the nick of time and got them safely into the water from a 10 foot high wall ! The next part of the drama was her leading them onto the central shingle bed which was full of seagulls, one of which was eyeing up the ducklings. At this point I headed home dreading what might happen later. On my return in the afternoon, I spotted her a bit farther down river being pursued by a gull, she had already lost 2 ducklings and was fending off the gull when I joined in, clapped my hands to chase the gull. She came over to the high wall beside me and I gave her some wheat grain then she headed over to the other side of the river. with the 5 remaining ducklings. This evening I could not resist checking on her again but could not find her or the ducklings. When I called the other Mother duck who had the 4 survivors from last Saturday down from the swans island, I was gobsmacked to see her come down from the nest with NINE DUCKLINGS...I realised right away that she had taken on - or adopted the new ducklings that had hatched earlier in the day. I was overjoyed because this is their best chance of survival, since this mother keeps to the safety of the island and nest, which is only a few feet from the Swans nest...the safest place to be! After a quick feed the mother of 4 led all of them back to island then up to the nest. The Mother of the 5 knew where they were and walked up to the nest to check they were OK. This was the ultimate in Sisterly love that I have ever witnessed between adult ducks ! Sequence of pics throughout the day, starting with the Star adoptive Mother !

Penny Takes a Break

With the cold Northerly wind blowing up river for days on end, today's brief glimpse of sunshine finally allowed Penny the chance for a short break. Popeye was on hand to stand guard over the nest, while Penny shivered after entering the cold water. A quick bite of some Wheat grains and a bath, followed by some preening. After 10 minutes off the nest, she returned to continue the long incubation. Popeye meanwhile passed some more nesting material to Penny and presented me with a shot of a pull me - push me Swan !