TALES OF THE RIVERBANK

The swans had another good year with five cygnets, the first one hatched on May 4^th and the rest before the week was out. Two of the cygnets developed a disease called 'angel wings' where an appendage grew on the tips of their wings, which looks like extra ones and because of this they can never attain flight. It was pathetic watching them trying to fly when their siblings were learning.

I was not too pleased with the RSPCA for not removing these two cygnets before their parents had chased them all upriver, as they couldn't fly away from danger. As it was, an eco disaster hit the Tyne in February when 300 litres of red diesel oil got into the river from the Letham Burn. The swans, and the ducks to a lesser degree, got oiled up. The swans were removed to a cleaning centre in Dunfermline. The adults and one cygnet were returned a few days later.

The two cygnets with angel disease were released on a quiet pond around Edinburgh where there are others like them. The other two cygnets were released in the wild.

Since the mallard ducks first appeared 17 years ago they have attracted other visitors in winter like the goosander, dabchick and cormorant. The last two winters a lone coot has appeared, a relative of the moorhen, black with off white beak, but much bigger than the moorhen. There was a pair of common scotter ducks for a wee while this winter, also a pure white call duck.

In September I found an adult otter run over on the A1 road a short distance from Amisfield cottages. It was fully a quarter of a mile from the river and it appeared to be heading further away when it was killed. It could have been one of the otters seen at the Abbey Bridge by Kenny Ingle a year past September.

I saw a pair of magpies in Tyne Court twice in October. They were at Barnton, west Edinburgh, in the late seventies. They gradually spread along the coast but had never come over the hill until now. They rob other nests and steal anything shiny. There is two pair of magpies nesting in trees barely one hundred metres apart in the Neilson Park.

Also in October, as I was crossing the Abbey Bridge I saw a sparrow hawk hit a pigeon in flight and they crashed onto the roadway in a welter of feathers. Just then a car came tearing around the corner, the hawk tried desperately to disentangle its claws from the pigeon's body but was hit and killed as it took off. The pigeon lay stunned by the fall and probably fright as well, but the car hadn't touched it. I watched until it recovered, gave itself a shake, and staggered into the air minus a lot of feathers. (The hunted vanquished the hunter.)

And lastly, if you want to see and hear the increasingly scarce skylark, walk along the A1 to the last field before Abbey Toll. (The field runs down the Tyne.) I have seen the skylark and heard its lovely song for years in spring and summer.

DAVID J. MOTHERWELL.