Christine's walking & birds blog

With Greger still recovering from a bad cold and the morning taken up with domestic tasks, I went out for a drive at a rather late 2 pm and stopped for a walk on the shingle beach at Ardmair. Far out in the bay were two black guillemots in breeding plumage (or close to it); a couple of days ago, these three were interacting there.


I drove on north, pulling in to have a look at Feur-loch - where I found both death and life.


Although it reached 10˚C today, there was still ice on freshwater (at least on higher moorland), and on this shallow loch there was a dead whooper swan. It appeared to be surrounded by thin ice which had partially melted, perhaps from its own body heat if it was freshly dead.


At the beginning of the winter there was a solitary whooper here. It was asleep on the bank when I first saw it, but I thought then that it could be dead. After a while, however, it lifted its head, slid into the water, and began to forage. It seemed a bit lethargic, and the next time I drove past it appeared to have gone. I wonder if this is the same bird.

Across a patch of open water, by a tussock of reedy grass, stood a grey heron.


I don't think herons scavenge from animal carcasses - despite appearances as I turned away, with the heron moving to the end of the tussock and seeming to look in the direction of the swan.


No doubt it's just waiting for a fish to pass by. And maybe fish are the only scavengers that can get to the swan at the moment. So, one way or another, the heron might end up eating the swan. I don't get too sentimental over dead animals - but this was one lifeless creature that did make me feel sad.