When I returned home after photographing this female goosander and her brood of 24 ducklings I got around to thinking of the 'logistics' involved in such a large brood size.

Reference's suggest a maximum clutch of 13 at the top end so it's presumed a second female has to have laid eggs in the nest as well, with incubation taking between 30-32 days and only starting proper when the clutch is complete there is ample time for the interloper to perform the act of laying when the resident female is off feeding. Then I got around to thinking of body mass and the area the eggs must have taken up for the female to keep them viable and after witnessing two female Eider ducks last summer incubating almost on top of one another reckoned it feasible that this may have been the case again, against that theory though is the fact only one female is in attendance, so has her maternal instincts been so strong that she has 'mugged' another female and stolen her brood and does this increase the chances of her own progeny surviving? against that theory is that the ducklings are all obviously the same age.

With Grey heron and Mink in the vicinity the odds are stacked against the bulk of this brood surviving, witnessed by an earlier brood of four reduced to two in a matter of days and none seen since.

Comments as always are welcomed on this theory.

I was able to start this blog last year with a new "tick" for my patch of an Iceland gull, well at the start of this year on the edge of the same. A minimum of two nuthatches have taken up residence in Ravenscraig park, Dysart/Kirkcaldy.

It has been a slow spread of this mainly arboreal bird into Fife, Breeding populations have been well established across the forth in Lothian region for many years.

Nuthatches are unusual in that they are as adept at crawling facing forwards going down tree trunks as they are at going up (as image shows) and if this bird is anything to go by more likely to be located by a very loud and high pitched call, easily picked out from our more usual "tit" and finch species.

There is a reason why small birds have large broods and large birds have a longer life span. Today's encounter with this juvenile gannet sitting on the beach illustrated the topic of this species juvenile mortality and how little time they have to perfect the art of diving successfully for their own food. Tragically this individual like so many others won't be making it's way out to the Atlantic ocean to winter of Africa's coast. A phone call to the SSPCA to come and collect it to save it a lingering death turned out to be it's fate, It's injuries were horrific and I admit to a bit of image manipulation to spare you the detail. I can only imaging the entry into the water was abysmally wrong or it was close to shore and hit something under the surface. Such a shame.

I have recently had the good fortune to witness two instances that define the word "spectacle", happening just now in the natural world not in far away places but on our doorstep, a combined total of hundreds of thousands of birds are in residence on the Isle of May and Bass rock at the mouth of the Firth of Forth. On my first visit to the "May" it felt like every one of the tens of thousands of puffins were reluctant to leave to go fishing. A virtual carousel of swirling avian beings. Awesome spectacle one.

Awesome spectacle two relates to the Bass Rock (pictured), It's hard to describe the impact on one's brain of being in the presence of seventy five thousand pair's of Gannets, the largest of the Northern hemisphere's seabirds, just sitting within their midst taking in the noise and smell, dodging wing's as they come and go has left an impression that will long remain in the memory.

This morning I was out monitoring the progress of how some peregrines are faring, little did I suspect coming across a buzzard carcass, directly under a wind turbine. Is it fair to criticise the methods of how the electricity we all use is generated?. Model's are generated for bird strike predictions during the planning stage, to estimate the casualty rate. Earlier this year I was asked if I had ever come across just such an incident, no I hadn't. Since then I've had a report of a badly cut up buzzard at my local wind farm, now today's addition. I wonder if the "model" took in the time of year for the outcome of this poor individuals breeding outcome, if there's chicks in a nest somewhere their chances of survival have been severely diminished, the risk of predation and chilling is greatly increased as it's partner will have to be away from the nest for longer periods to hunt. If asked the question again what figure do I answer with now?..

Ravens, being early nesters have reached the stage where the broods are ready to fledge. I can't help thinking now that the growing Fife population is reaching the stage where it's hard to not notice them whilst we are out and about there will be call's for licences to control their numbers here. there is a huge controversial issue taking place just now at Strathbran in Perthshire where a licence has been issued to "control" 300 birds over five years, under the pretext of saving local waders. There has been a considerable number of young ravens fledged from Fife in the last few years but no one is reporting flocks of juveniles or non-breeders in the county and they don't recognise borders, given the numbers quoted from Perthshire is it feasible that they could include some of ours?.

More of the story at the Raptor persecution UK website.

It's been quite a month, there are changes to the Wemyss coastline that I have never witnessed the like of before, features that were familiar have suffered dramatic change all due to the two extensive storms from the East. Concrete has been stripped from the pathways, the beach level has never been lower, where the stones etc. have been moved to is anyone's guess. the wildlife has suffered as much, large area's of the rocks below the high tide line have been stripped of seaweed and invertebrate life, limpet shells are a common occurrence but the amount still with the mollusc inside was extraordinary, octopus, flounder's were also noted

The feared "wreck" of auks didn't materialise with only about eight counted in the weeks after the storms, two shags and two kittiwakes adding to the casualty list. This may only have been the tip of the iceberg though as I noted Great black back gull's feasting on carcasses out at sea. It seems these birds may still be suffering a lack of condition as witnessed by the bird pictured, out of place sitting on the harbour wall this morning, the shag image in the recent images gallery was also unusually approachable, it's also possible that numbers are reduced as the tides scoured the beach off them also. What was evident though was related to the topic of the moment, Plastic, where it has all come from is amazing, no, staggering.

Installed in early November it's taken until now for my "apple tree" to fulfill it's purpose in the garden. Three days of the weather pattern dubbed the "beast from the East" and the thrushes are beginning to appear in numbers, multiple blackbirds along with three Fieldfare and a solitary song thrush today. Who knows what damage is being done to the wildlife in the wider countryside. Takes me back to 1963 when I noticed my first weather related multiple mortality event with robins and redwing lying dead along the coastal path to the East of West Wemyss.

The seabirds won't be faring any better either, after many days of strong winds stirring up the sea. Could be a large "wreck"of auks and shags about to transpire as they will be struggling to find food in the murky water.

One of the benefits of carrying out any kind of survey over many years is that you notice the pattern of migration more keenly, I was beginning to wonder what had happened to the local eiders as this has been a particularly sparse winter for them, well though the number is still short of a decade or so they recovered today to recent February counts, plenty of courtship activity and the females will soon be heading to the islands in the Forth to nest. A record count for February of 17 red throated divers plus 1 great northern also suggests movement. The Turnstone and redshank numbers have also increased noticeably and fulmars are back on the cliffs at West Wemyss.

Last Summer/Autumn I spent a lot of hours monitoring the Mediterranean gulls that visit the shoreline roost at East Wemyss, The best count was 10 one evening at high tide, not including two juveniles that had been noted a day or so earlier. It was interesting watching them change from summer to winter plumage and how quickly it happened. There have been several winter records from various venues along the Fife coast during the Winter period but today was the first here at the Wemyss, It seems to be stealing a march on the black-headed gulls as far as moulting back into summer plumage is concerned as it's head contains plenty of black feathers again.

The one thing retirement provided was time to enjoy the outdoors during daylight hours in the winter period, But what to do?, The light is not always conducive to photography, walking the dog, though enjoyable but not quite stimulating, led to viewing a poster for "Kirkcaldy geologists". So far my main interests with the natural world has definitely been in the here and now. So in Feb 2017 I "gatecrashed" the meeting being held to discuss the forthcoming seasons outings which take place every Wednesday morning and I was up and running, It has been very instructive visiting various locations in Fife to find out what has transpired in the formation of our county from the time when it straddled the equator with the subsequent volcanic and afforestation and accumulation of coalfields and sediments which is very evident here on the Wemyss estate.

Today's outing was to St Andrews university to view the fossil fish specimens excavated from a quarry in Dura Den. It's thought they died when their pool dried out but must have been quickly covered to enable the incredible degree of detail to be as well preserved as it is.

There were many fieldfares flying back and forth over the house this morning and settling in the tall trees on the edge of the village, I remembered the berry tree's over in the next street and went for a look, sure enough they were feasting quite happily. the strange thing is there are three tree's right next to one another but the birds were restricting their harvest to only one of the pyracantha's leaving the other two relatively untouched. they moved off the next day when the weather turned milder so now there's one tree stripped and two laden still, hopefully left for waxwings to provide photo opportunities next.

I thought it would be good to start this Blog with a first for my "home patch" on the Wemyss estate here in Fife, Scotland. I've been bird watching here for nigh on sixty years and still get a thrill when a new species comes along, Iceland gulls are more regular on the west coast of Scotland, some years better than others.The bird shown is a first year bird probably drifted down from its more northerly climes by the recent strong winds from that quarter. unfortunately it didn't hang around and was last seen heading in an easterly direction.