Archives: April 2006
Fri Apr 28, 2006
More ducklings...
There are more ducklings on the Slea now, that is as long as they can keep away from danger including...
.. cats along with uncontrolled dogs are a menace to the wildlife that they can do without :(
Terry
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Tue Apr 25, 2006
Just looked and 1 year ago...
I have just looked at my records and found out that exactly 1 year ago today there were little coots on the Slea. This year we have already had 2 coots nests 'robbed' of their eggs (maybe mink/human/other predator ???), again a year ago the Slea was teeming with ducklings but this year there are not many at all (we know some have been had by mink), exactly a year ago this next Friday (3 days time) we had 8 cygnets and this year there will be none. So its a sad year so far.
Terry
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More ducklings...
There are a few more duckligs about now, althouth not nearly as many as last year at this time. The family of 4 (with 2 yellow ducklings) are still around and they are growing well. Here is 2 ducklings snuggling up to each other today, not sure where the mother was...
...there has also been a moorhen sitting on a nest for about a week, sadly she was not there today and there were no eggs in the nest. Not sure if this was caused by a human or natural predators :(
Terry
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Wed Apr 19, 2006
Not sure why I didn remember to mention this yesterday...
Not sure why I didn remember to mention this yesterday as it is a disaster, althouth the 2nd coot pair are still around all the eggs from there nest have disappeared. I could not see any broken shells or damage to the nest (which is a little way into the river but probably reachable from the bank). So I am not sure if this has happened because of a human or animal ??? This is another sad episode for the wildlife on the Slea this year. As the Coot pair are still around they may try again and hopefully if they do the reeds etc will have grown to camoflage them this time.
Terry
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Tue Apr 18, 2006
First the good news...
First the good news, the 4 duckling family are still all together and the 3 duckling family are actually a 4 duckling family, when I have seen them lately I had only seen 3 ducklings but I saw 4 today.
Now the bad news, the 3 duckling family, who are now actually another 4 duckling family (see above) had 6 ducklings only a few day ago and a member of the public has told the Cogglesford Miller that they actually saw a Mink kill 2 ducklings :( so this is the first actual evidence I have heard of of the Mink killing Slea wildlife, but it had been suspected for some time, but now we have real proof. So I phoned the Environmental agency to see if the Mink could be removed for the sake of the other Slea wildlife. Although the EA were very sympathetic and knowledgeable, they informed me that they had no authority to do anything about the problem and stated that the land owners are really the only people who can do anything to get the problem sorted out. As the Council own Cogglesford Mill they will be told of the Mink problem but whether they will be able to do anything is debateable, but I will keep my fingers crossed just in case.
Here is a Robin today taking bread out of someone hand near Cogglesford...
Terry
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Sun Apr 16, 2006
Colin you will be pleased to know...
Colin, you will be pleased to know that we havnt lost any ducklings over the last couple of days :) We still have 2 families, 1 with 4 ducklings and 1 with 3, however the Miller told me he had seen a Mink again yesterday :(
Terry
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Fri Apr 14, 2006
Today is the Moorhens turn...
Today its the Moorhens turn to be on the ex Coots nest.
... the mallard family on the nest yesterday (see below) now only has 3 ducklings, yesterday there were 6, and only earlier in the week there were 12 :(
Terry
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Thu Apr 13, 2006
At least...
...at least the coots nest is being put to good use.
This family started off with 12 chicks and is now down to just 6 :(
Terry
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Wed Apr 12, 2006
The male ducks are getting confused...
The male ducks are getting confused...
... it must be the hormones, also 2 Canada geese on and off at the hub.
Terry
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Fri Apr 07, 2006
Female coot...
There is a Coot near the nest this morning and I am assuming it is the female, if so it looks like she either abandoned the nest and eggs (?) or something scared her away (remember she wasnt to be seen yesterday when I was down there) at least long enough for disaster to happen. From the image below of a couple of eggs in the water it looks to me from the cracks/holes in the egg that a bird probably had what was inside as the eggs are not smashed as they would be if a mammal had got them, but have holes big enough for a beak to get into, so probably the magpies are to blame for the egg distruction but we probably will never know why the female coot left the nest/eggs in the first place but 'Mink' are still in the back of my mind ?
Terry
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Thu Apr 06, 2006
So sad...
Coots nest, so sad...
...this is all that is left of 7 Coot eggs. Firstly the male disapeared and now the female, we dont know if the eggs were taken at the same time but I suspect something scared the female away or attacked her and then magpies took the eggs. I have also seen another family of Ducklings without a mother, that makes 3 in total so far which is very strange (I have actually only seen 1 family WITH a mother) are all these problems associated with the sightings of Mink ??? The river Slea seems a sad place to me so far this year :(
Terry
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Tue Apr 04, 2006
Where is the male Coot...
The male Coot who is normally defending his mate and territory was nowhere to be seen this morning. His mate needs him to defend her if any other coots come near as they have done over the last few weeks.
Yesterday I saw a lone duckling, there were no other ducklings about or a mother, I didnt see him/her this morning so its possible it didnt survive the night :(
Lone duckling yesterday...
I really hope the disapearance of the Coot and Mother/ducklings isnt anything to do with the recent sightings of Mink :(
Terry
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