Wildlife 2007

[mark smyth]

she doesnt look right and may be a hybrid hence the yellow duckling that will have white feathers

lots of drakes here on the river with bare breasts from fighting. one pair were right out side the hotel door lazing and a new drake flew in grabbed the duck, tried his luck in front of her mate and then flew off. Later on I saw eight drakes on one duck almost drowning her before she flew off

[Lesley Cox]

May the Fourth be with you Tom.

I'm probably missing something here, but it reminds me of a silly rhyme -
The thunder god rode out one day, upon his favourite filly.
'I'm Thor' he cried, the horse replied
'You forgot your thaddle, thilly.'

[Lesley Cox]

in Christchurch, near Bournemouth (then in Hampshire - can't get my head round how they moved a whole town into Dorset ). Scary!

What? I thought it was moved to Canterbury, New Zealand!

[Maggi Young]

Now, we know my geography isn't all it could be, but I thought Canterbury was in Kent ?
Ruddy elections, they'll change the boundaries once too often, you mark my words!

[Joakim B]

Mark the mother was not a mallard! She was pure black with some with feathers and more of a "diving duck" with male and female looking almost the same. The white one might be an adopted mallard and the rest her own. (That was my thought atleast.)
Kind regards
Joakim

[mark smyth]

black and white would indicate a Tufted duck but while the male is black and white she is brown and white

[TC]

Now for something terminally cute.  As a Glasgow matron would say ' Aw the nice '

[Maggi Young]

Five and ten chicks, eh? And they say the trend is for smaller families!  This must be why there is such a fashion for the builders to flog "executive five bedroomed homes" 

[Paddy Tobin]

TC,

What duck that? Eider?

Great photographs. Paddy

[TC]

Paddy
Yes it is a female Eider.  It is hard to say whether all the ducklings belong to this female as they operate a creche system.  You often see a large group of ducklings with three or four females guarding them so that they can take turns in feeding as they have to dive to some depth for crabs or shellfish.
Once the males have mated, they "swan off " and spend the Summer in all boy groups.

Maggi
The Pen swan actually has 7 cygnets and is living happily in a large detached pond at Ardrossan.  Food is supplied in abundance by the local housewives who guard them jealously.  Also, the male Swan is a force to be reckoned with as some inquisitive dogs have found out to their cost !

[Anthony Darby]

Eiders are well known utilisers of the crèche system. Having seen their waste products I have come to the coclusion they must have cast iron backsides!

A note about feeding wild fowl: the ducks on Linlithgow Loch are suffering malnutrion because of the amount of white bread they are eating. White bread (and for that matter, lettuce and tomato cucumber [oops - tomato shouldn't be fed to tortoises, but I use cucumber skin dosed with vitamin/mineral supplement as a treat] in connection with tortoises) is designed for human consumption and is therefore devoid of any useful nutritional content.

[Maggi Young]

If anyone would like to feed "their" water birds with a more sensible diet, try this link:
http://www.birdfood.co.uk/product_details.php?area_id=2&group_id=12&nav_id=25&prd_id=314
Duck and Swan food, the blurb says: Developed in association with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), this balanced food contains a the vitamins, minerals and trace elements needed by ducks, swans and geese to keep them healthy. The specially developed food is far more beneficial to wildfowl than bread and should be sprinkled on the bank or shallows for ducks, and in deeper water for swans."

This from CJ wild bird foods, a company we use for our bird food supplies.Delivery is very quick and prices reasonable.

[Carol Shaw]

Not got a pix. yet but a slow worm has taken up residence in our garden! We found it out sunning itself early yesterday evening. Hopefully there is more than one of them and it wil eat some of the bugs and beasties.

[Maggi Young]

That's great, Carol! I don't think there are very many  Slow Worms about nowadays, so I'm glad to hear you have them in the area. I haven't seen one for years.

[Anthony Darby]

Slowworms (Anguis fragilis) are specialist slug eaters. Like all native Scottish reptiles (we have three), they retain their eggs and produce them with fully formed young which hatch almost immediately (ovoviviparous).