TALES OF THE RIVERBANK

If you walk along the East Haugh in the early morning, there is a cheeky family of crows which watch you from the trees then swoop down in front of you. They caper about as if to say “ hey mister! if you have any bread with you I can do with some” and they keep harassing you until they get some. I usually have bread for the ducks but I wait until nearly at the Waterloo Brig before I feed them as I enjoy their antics. You see the adults teaching their fledglings the same tricks every year. I haven’t seen such huge numbers of geese overflying the river for many a long year. As early as September huge skeins of birds were flying south and west. I thought it was going to be a really savage winter but it was a pussycat.

I have only seen one or two dragonflies on the Tyne but last summer Robert Ingle told me he had seen lots of the big blue variety on the wee pond at the east end of Amisfield Park.

Mink are being seen more regularly now. They have been seen along the top of the weir at the Bermaline and even on swan island at the auld brig. Speaking of the Queen’s birds the pair on the island last year produced seven eggs, two of which were infertile, one cygnet died in the nest, another died much later while learning to fly.

Grebes, gooseanders and cormorants were all back on the water in winter. They are diving birds which eat a lot of trout and fry and they are getting bolder every year.

There are now multitudes of mallard duck on the town water and among them for the past nine months has been a black female duck which looks like a pochard with a blue beak but without the red eyes. Archie Mathieson thinks its a tufted duck.

In February, I spotted an ermine stoat along the river at the golf course. It was very conspicuous in its white coat and black tipped tail against the green of the grass. Also in February of this year, I saw a hawk pounce on one of the pigeons from the Maltings. The pigeon escaped when they hit telephone wires, then the pigeon with the hawk close behind, tried to escape into the swimming pool entrance. Both crashed into the glass doors and out again before the hawk finally caught its prey.

I wish people would feed the wildlife in the winter more than they do in the summer when there is no real need.

DAVID J. MOTHERWELL.