The owner of a duck which died shortly after being rescued says she blames a Perthshire nature reserve for his death.
Hamish McDuck passed away in his owner’s arms as vets battled in vain to save him after he was found in a garden near Loch of the Lowes on Thursday.
The rare mandarin drake had been living wild for more than six weeks after he stolen from his home at Guay Farm, near Ballinluig on March 11. His mate Morag died days after his theft, seemingly of a broken heart.
Hamish was spotted at Loch of the Lowes after apparently being dumped but owner Suzi Anderson was unable to rescue him due to the nesting ospreys in the area.
Suzi criticized the nature reserve for banning her from retrieving her pet, pointing out that last year’s T in the Park festival was held close to an osprey nest.
She said: “If they had let me pick him up when I asked Hamish would have been home a long time ago. They stopped me from going to get him – they said I could only get him if he was at a feeding station because of the ospreys.
“He was nowhere near the ospreys and they let Strathallan have T in the Park while their ospreys were nesting, so what difference it would have made me going and picking up Hamish, I really don’t know.
“I am really, really angry with them – this should never have happened.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, which runs the Loch of the Lowes, said the birds are protected by law.
He said: “We’re sorry to learn that the pet duck belonging to Mrs Anderson has died.
“Our team at Loch of the Lowes offered as much assistance as possible after a mandarin duck was spotted at the reserve, including offering to catch it at the feeding station. Unfortunately it moved on from the reserve before this was possible.
“Ospreys are a Schedule One protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act and any disturbance to our breeding pair of birds could be a criminal offence.
“As a result we are unable to allow anyone to access to the loch while the nest is occupied.”
