The Fight for Life.

I can’t get over just how many Yellowhammers can be heard every time I step outside my door. They’re singing all over the place! Add to this the omnipresent cascading warble from the Willow Warbler, the rambling natter from the Skylark and the chattering Swallows and House Martins overhead and you’ve got the cacophony of summer in your own back garden! And that’s us on a street full of houses; what’s it like for those whose houses are in the fields and woodland surrounding Nairn!

On another subject, anyone walking along the River Nairn surely can’t fail to be impressed by the elegance of the Grey Heron stalking its prey. There are currently two Heron on the river most days, standing motionless on the shore, eye’s piercing the water and waiting to pounce. You can see its long, thin neck with the crest twitching in the wind. I love watching it move serenely across the rocks, treading carefully so as not to disturb the river bed and betraying its presence to the life below.

A few days ago I observed the other side of this beautiful bird; a demonstration of how live in the wild is tough and how the birds do not always live up to the delicate picture we create. The Heron was stalking its prey and then with a sudden and deadly thrust of its beak, its head darted into the water and came up with its trophy; this time an eel. Job done? Not quite. On this occasion the eel wrapped itself around the Heron’s long bill in a desperate fight for survival. The bird swung its head violently from side to side trying to reposition the eel. Struggling to do so, it threw the eel against the rocks and started to prod it with its bill. It then picked off the seaweed from the eel and picked it up again, only for the eel to quickly wrap itself around the bill again! Now the Heron managed to untangle a porting of the eel and it banged it against the rock. But still it fought for its life and clung on to the bill. Eventually it had to give up; and it was gone!

Not long afterwards the Nairn Swans approached the Heron; seeing it as a threat to their brood; which of course it is! Not long ago a TV crew were filming a Grey Heron and regaling the beauty of the bird, only to catch on film the moment that Heron decided to change its target from the fish under the water to the Moorhen chick on it – and in one fail swoop grabbed and swallowed the chick. Not quite the image the film crew were hoping to portray! But that’s nature. It doesn’t always live up to our human sensibilities; and long may that continue.

The Nairn Birder

Litter Pick

My first ‘blogging’ is from last Friday when I went out to help clean up the banks of the river Nairn and the paths near Jubilee Bridge. What an incredible amount of rubbish was found including car batteries, car seats and scores of broken alcohol bottles. Although it was satisfying to leave the place cleaner and tidier it is disappointing that there is a need to do this.

The weather was beautiful and we all soon discarded layers as we worked. The birds did their best to distract me, these included a heron which flew past close enough to touch before landing a couple of metres away to continue it’s hunt for food, and a dipper was obviously aware of our work as it kept flying round us then landing to do it’s ‘dip’ giving us great views. This is the closest I have been to one for a long time and it is unusual to get such lengthy views of one. There was also a grey wagtail under the railway bridge ‘wagging and pipping’ beautifully. The common birds I saw included Blue tits, chaffinches and blackbirds. There was also blackcaps heard by another litter picker but I was too busy to catch it at the time.

Another spectacle for the day was the amount of wild garlic. It is very aromatic and looks very attractive too.

So my recommendations are to slow down when out by the river to enjoy the smells, sounds a sights. And maybe take a bag to collect any rubbish which has gathered – this offers some exercise as you enjoy the area.

Kate

Look what can be spotted when you're not bird watching!

This is a short post to show what can be observed even when you are not ‘bird watching’ when you are in the great countryside that surrounds Nairn.

We were driving back from Brodie on the back roads to Nairn when we spotted two Rooks displaying in a field. Proof that spring is here as we sat watching them do the business and making us feel slightly voyeuristic, so we left them to it. We drove on, only to be distracted by 10 Herons standing together in the next field looking for something to do! There necks were tucked into their chests and they resembled grey standing stones. Two Mallards swam near the car in a small flood as 19 Oyster Catchers pecked around the rim of the flood.

We were now late for an appointment at home, but had to stop again alongside the next field because 60 Curlew were feeding with 26 Oyster Catchers.

And all this in a 10 minute ‘rush home’!

Séamus