Most of today was taken up with the exploits of the pair of Shelduck taking their brood of ducklings from their nest in an old burrow to the water. The ducklings themselves could not be more than a couple of days old. This year for some reason the adult birds took a right turn on leaving the burrow and headed inland with 7 ducklings. Around 3 hours later, and about 1.5 miles on, they got to the water minus one of the brood. The going was certainly hard, across tussocky grass and even through long heather, but it was heartening to see them swimming off at the end. We reckon that this is about 15 days earlier than previous years. After all the drama, when we returned to the burrow, young Ravens were to be seen along to the left, possibly the reason why the Shelduck had taken the long way out to water. I.K.B.
There have been several different sightings of Pheasant with young at foot, again a good fortnight ahead of sightings in other years. J.A.
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