The Lemon Fool

We have coots, mallards and two pairs of geese on our duck pond at the moment. I don't know what type of geese as they're on the small island but I suspect that they will be Canada geese. I've seen ducklings but no sign of any other youngsters. I love this time of the year, we're waiting anxiously to see if our housemartins, usually between four and six pairs will be back this year.

R6

We walked to the fishing loch yesterday - taking a liberal interpretation of the "about one hour" exercise. The female swan was tucked up in her nest in a reed bed, while her mate was cruising up and down nearby, keeping away all potential intruders. At the other end of the loch, there were geese feeding up in the fields among the sheep, and groups of them flew noisily down to the loch. The majority were Greylags, but there was a pair of Canada geese. There were numerous ducks of various varieties, but I didn't see the grebes. Its a big loch, so they may still be present. Normally around this time we would see the appearance of Ospreys - fishing for the excellent brown trout that we have stocked in the loch. But in our short sojourn we didn't see any.

Over the last two days or so, eight of our resident pair of swans nine eggs have hatched; I guess it's too early to say if the ninth will or not. We've also quite a few ducklings and some goslings from the Canada geese who share the lake, but if previous years are anything to go by, the male swan, (who for reasons I can't fathom is known to all and sundry as Rambo ) will ensure all such competition is exterminated. Life is cruel!

The swans lost quite a few of their brood last year, I wonder if they'll have more luck this year?

Time will tell...

And this morning the eight took to the water, shepherded by Ma and Pa. Looks like one egg has proved to be a dud.

Off wandering round one of our local ponds, we were pleased to see that the resident pair of swans were proudly shepherding their family of six cygnets.



And at the (larger) fishing loch, the pair of swans also were shepherding their brood - but they were too far away to count them. I'll take a monocular on my next visit.

Since yesterday morning our brood of eight is currently down to seven.

The group were sitting on the grass beside the lake with their mother when they were attacked by a Staffie which it's owner had off it's lead. One or two folk who were walking round the lake saw the attack from afar and saw the dog owner walk away unconcerned.

They found a cygnet with a broken leg and called the RSPCA who came pretty quickly, managed to rescue it and it's now apparently on the mend at a nature reserve following a visit to a vet. It will apparently only be returned to our lake if it makes a full recovery.

I know nature can be cruel, but some humans are in a league of their own

On our local pond the six cygnets still seem to be thriving



It amazing how with their downy feathers they can still bob underneath the surface, then shed off the water when they bob back up.
The parents are still very attentive , and gave us a warning hiss when we approached too near.

scotia wrote:It amazing how with their downy feathers they can still bob underneath the surface, then shed off the water when they bob back up.

A few years ago I was watching the wee ducklings at Bingham's Pond in Glasgow, and marvelling at how these miniscule, fluffy, lighter-than-air creatures could bob under the water. They made trying to submerge a bubble of air seem so easy.

--kiloran

At last I have managed a close-up of the Swans and their six cygnets on the fishing loch. On previous evenings they have remained at the far end of the loch, and since I'm not currently fishing from the shared boats (like most of the oldies), I have only managed a distant view. But yesterday evening, they sailed across to the bank where I fish from, and displayed the family - then after the obligatory photo-shoot they sailed back to the far side of the loch. There are six healthy looking cygnets, and there is a good crop of weed sprouting up around the loch margins, so hopefully we have an R number of three, two years in a row. Should we be worried by over-population?

Our local pair of swans have only this week seen off the last remaining cygnet from last year.

And the female has had a busy time. Not checked myself, but two locals say she is incubating eleven eggs.

It'll be interesting to see how many hatch and how many survive.

staffordian wrote:Our local pair of swans have only this week seen off the last remaining cygnet from last year.

And the female has had a busy time. Not checked myself, but two locals say she is incubating eleven eggs.

It'll be interesting to see how many hatch and how many survive.

All the cygnets have gone from the fishing loch, but the two swans are both swimming around and showing no signs yet about nesting.

Sad times on our lake.

Nine cygnets hatched over the last few days but all have succumbed to (we think) the cold and wet weather.

Two eggs remain but the experts believe they won't hatch.

Nature can be cruel.

Well, an unexpected turn of events this year.

Following the loss of all the cygnets earlier in the season, our local swan laid a second clutch of eggs. Six more after the earlier eleven.

Two hatched yesterday and a further two have now hatched.

A local expert reckons Mid July is the latest he's seen cygnets hatch, and it seems a pretty impressive task, laying seventeen eggs in the season.

At least the weather is better for the young ones than it was when the first lot hatched. We're all just keeping our fingers crossed that these have more luck than the first ones.

The two swans are still swimming about, acting like a pair, on our fishing loch - with no signs of a nest. Could this be a different (young?) pair. Did we lose the originals over-winter? I'll need to get the opinion of our club ornithologist.
The loch is still getting attention from the Ospreys. Yesterday evening, after another hot day, there was little evidence of any fish on the surface - but an Osprey took about 5 minutes to spot, and capture a nice fish. I took several hours and failed to make contact with any fish. However it was pleasant watching the ducks shepherding platoons of ducklings around the loch.