Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Duck spotting in Elie

Post Thumbnail

It’s a jungle out there – and no more so than for the mother mallard and her troupe of ducklings out on the rocky foreshore near Elie on the East Neuk.

One duckling had become slightly separated from the rest of the clan when in the blink of an eye a crow swooped down and snatched the youngster away, gripping the little bundle of fluff firmly in its powerful beak.

The drama was over in a second and all the mother could do was to quickly shepherd her remaining brood through a maze of rock pools and away to safety. That’s nature I suppose, but my wife and I were shocked by the finality of it all, the cruel twist of fate that had given this little duckling the shortest of lives.

Of course, the inevitability of predation is why ducks have such large broods, and as long as one or two can survive to adulthood, then the breeding season will have been judged a success.

Female Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) and ducklings

The seashore is a dangerous place for young birds, especially since there will also be numerous patrolling gulls on the look-out for an easy meal. Eider ducklings in particular can suffer a terrible toll on our east coast beaches. As a means of keeping losses to an acceptable level, the mother eiders often organise their youngsters into large crèches where there is safety in numbers.

This stretch of the Fife coastal walk between Elie and St Monans is a marvellous place to be, and although saddened by the demise of the duckling, our spirits were soon lifted by the numerous wildflowers by the path side. There were cowslips, tufted vetch, scurvygrass and birds-foot trefoil.

Rain was falling, which brought out an unusual abundance of snails, both garden snails and banded snails, which have a more coloured and patterned shell. The conditions were ideal for them and on several occasions we came upon mating snails locked together in a passionate molluscan embrace. Each creature possesses both male and female sex organs and sperm is passed from each snail to the other, and both will lay eggs.

Duckling in the Rocks

A nuthatch visited our garden in Strathdevon last week, the second one to do so in as many years. As I watched it spiral its way up an ash tree, its stout beak probing the bark, I reflected upon the changes there has been in our wildlife over a comparatively short period.

Nuthatches are recent avian colonisers to Scotland from England, but there have been several other exciting additions to our fauna too, some arriving under their own steam and others with the helping hand of man. Who would have thought a few decades ago that red kites, sea eagles, little egrets, comma butterflies and beavers would all now be part of the Scottish nature scene?

I wonder what the future holds and which species will be in the next round of winners and losers.

Info

Mother ducks, like many other ground-nesting birds, often perform a ‘broken wing’ act if a predator approaches her nest or brood. This is designed to distract the predator and lure it away.