A bearded vulture that flew through the UK 4 years ago - the second ever record for the UK - has been identified by DNA from her feathers as Flysch-Vigo, who hatched in 2019 in the French Alps, and was seen in the Swiss Alps in 2023, again identified by her feathers
I love how we can track birds now, through gps loggers or by testing the dna on feathers they leave behind. Remembering the Pfeilstorch - how we first found evidence of bird migration: an unfortunate White Stork arrived one Spring in Germany with an African spear through its neck
@christianp isn't it amazing! I know of a larger open Nature Reserve using to to work out where people are going and therefore the best place to put information and things
Happy St Cuthbert's Day! Post your pics of Cuddy's (eider) ducks; they're named for the saint protecting them when he lived as a hermit on Inner Farne off the coast of Northumberland
For Easter, Christian pilgrims follow St Cuthbert's Way from Melrose in the Scottish Borders, where as a young Shepherd, Cuthbert was inspired by a vision of St Aidan, across the borders and the sands to Lindisfarne, where he eventually became bishop.
He died on this day in 687 and buried on Lindisfarne, but Viking Raids in the 900s led to the monks removing his body and lugging it around the north east until they finally settled at Durham Cathedral ni 995
Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) meanwhile is the UK's heaviest and fastest flying duck, fact fans. It's at the edge of its range in the UK and North Europe, being a mainly arctic species.
The best things about it are that the females pool together their ducklings into creches; this lets individual ducks head off for adult food (mussels) while the ducklings are safe with their aunties foraging for their food (small coastal insects).
@Snoweider I was researching nest shelters to try and increase eider productivity and was quite taken back at how much effort was made to help them out.
If you really want a good, detailed read on Eider farming, this PhD is superb - "Ethnoecology of Eider Farmers in Iceland - Typology of a Multiform Experience" by Giles Chen
@Snoweider I was particularly taken by a practice, where after sitting out with their ducks all night to protect them from foxes, in the morning the farmers all gather for coffee and share the poems they wrote overnight with each other
This is an inventory of placenames in Kidland, the estate into which this part of Coquetdale lies, and includes "the Murder Clewgh", which, in 1550 is 60 years before Isabella was murdered, so may refer to the northern Murder Cleugh?