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Diciadain, 28/Aug/2013

The Islay Shelduck Rescue

Islay News in stencil

Some good news on the Islay Birds blog today, something I have a personal interest in, but also thought others might find interesting. On the 16th of June, my first morning on Islay during my summer holiday, I spotted seven Shelduck ducklings on the beach in Machir Bay without any adult in sight:

Picture of seven Shelduck ducklings on a beach

As I was on my own there wasn't anything I could do apart from taking pictures and a short video. When I got back to Islay House Cottages I briefly mentioned them to Ian. A day or two later I saw Ian again and he asked, ‘Remember the ducklings from Sunday?’ It turned out that Paul and Joan Graham from an taigh-osda had been to the beach a couple of hours after me with a group of friends. They had spotted the ducklings as well and had managed to capture them all and brought them to Ian and Margaret. For the first week or so they lived in a large bucket under a heat lamp:

Picture of ducklings in a large bucket

Later on they moved into the shed, much more space for them there. Margaret looked after them well and all seven grew much bigger. Yesterday the big day arrived and during the monthly Islay Bird Nerds meeting they were released at Gruinart:

Picture of a group of people holding Shelducks

Good luck to them out in the wild and thanks to Margaret, Ian, Paul, Joan, their friends and everyone else involved in bringing them up successfully!

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