...Country Corner
OYSTERCATCHERS are now back on their local breeding sites after spending the winter moths at coastal habitats.
Each breeding sees a selection of young birds caught and ringed.
It is always an anxious wait to see where these birds end up for the winter. Some birds have flown down south west and been relocated in Wales.
Most of the Borders’ ringing is done at upland sites, mainly along burns and neighbouring fields. They are regularly seen from trains operating over the Waverley route to Edinburgh.
Some of the upland water bodies, like Stantlingcraigs Reservoir, near Clovenfords, see a small flock on the edge of the reservoir before dispersing to breed.
Over the last few years some Oystercatchers have become town birds and have elected to build nests on roofs of various buildings.
The first pair that came to my attention took up residence on a flat roofed building on the Tweedbank Industrial Estate and in the following years on the roof of the Scottish College of Textiles.
On Sunday past a noisy individual flew over the Focus Centre in Livingston Place and headed towards the Academy.
During the past week there was a new arrival in my front garden, the first for this year, two Mallard, a male and a female, probably looking for safe place to build a nest.
On approach they paddled around in the garden pond before walking out and running through the rockery before taking off and heading for the park to continue their search.
Mallard have visited my garden in previous years but never nested.
There is good habitat all around my local patch and hopefully they found a suitable quiet corner. Once selected a nest is built and the female will incubate for up to 28 days.
Once hatched, the ducklings will follow their mother around. While incubating the nest, eggs can be destroyed by predators such as otters, fox and mink, and Carrion Crows will pick up an egg and fly off to a favourite perch with the egg secured in their mouth.
Mallard females appeared on the loch at Tweedbank with accompanying ducklings a good number walking into the loch, while
others emerged from nests around the loch.
In all of this drawn out process the female and her brood face more predators like large gulls and Grey Herons.
Unfortunately, this is nature in the raw but still upsets the visitors to the loch.
This weekend a pair of Bullfinch have visited the apple tree in my back garden to eat the emerging buds. They usually disappear when gardening work begins.
There is little I can do to stop them and hope the damage has not been too great.
The male looked beautiful in the early morning sunshine.
Over the winter it has been the constant presence of Feral Pigeons that have been a problem, as they trample the ground searching out seed displaced from the
feeders.
Over the winter there have been up to 50 in the area, with a big flock on the roof of the house at the end of the street and on the roof of the flats overlooking the loch.
The Mute Swans on the loch have been varying in number from 20 to 26 over the past week.
As there is little natural food in the loch at the moment a few birds are out on the grass verge grazing on the grass.
Dog walkers should be keeping under control as the birds, if disturbed, could panic and end up on the road and be struck by passing vehicles.
Please exercise care when you visit the loch. There is a bird sitting on a nest on the island and it will be into May before any cygnets appear as it takes 35 days incubation and she started sitting in earnest at the end of March.