Autumn 3

Searching for swans

Sunday 20th September, 2015

On the whole it was one of those weeks that are best forgotten.  On Monday I battled with the holly hedge.  On Tuesday I decided that I could no longer put off tackling our income tax return - a task that I enjoy even less than cutting holly.  The tax form wasn’t finished until Thursday morning - due mainly to the fact that I kept trying to find other “urgent” things that needed to be done first so that I could avoid it a bit longer.  But also because of a long battle with my printer which the computer swore it couldn’t “find” even though it was listed under devices and printers.  Eventually I discovered that the computer had just forgotten - for reasons known only to itself - that the Canon was its default printer.

Then I filled in my bird list and mowed on Thursday afternoon.  I felt very virtuous and thought all the paperwork was over . . . but the week hadn’t finished with me yet.  If there is one thing I like less than tax returns and cutting holly, it is trying to communicate with bankers. I expect most bankers are nice people and are even kind to their dogs but they never seem able to comprehend the depth of my ignorance of financial jargon.  I came in from the garden intending to relax and have a nice cup of tea but found an email from our bank in Durban.  Some money had arrived in our account and they couldn’t send it to us until we had provided "documents relating to this payment".  I wrote back asking "what documents" and got a reply saying "a statement or any kind of communication confirming values have been paid".  I was tempted to write back "wtf does that mean?" but I patiently asked for a clarification and got another email saying that they required "a copy of the attached for the 2015 payment". "The attached" was a lengthy batch of emails relating to last year's remittance.  It seemed too "Alice in Wonderland" to be required to send them an attachment which they had just sent to us - so I sent all the recent correspondence with their Custodial Services regarding the money instead.  And the next thing I received was an automated response saying that the person I was writing to was "currently not in the office".  So I suppose the email battle will re-commence next week unless she has gone on a long holiday - or has left for pastures new, a fate which has apparently befallen Theo who sorted out the remittance last year.

Just to add insult to injury, I found a reminder about a mandate which the bank required - but had forgotten to send us.  They duly emailed the form to me - but of course it came as an attachment that I couldn’t open until I had located and downloaded the required software.   And finally, I noticed that Tim’s passport had expired earlier this month.  We don’t plan to travel but passports are essential here because there are no ID cards.  The last straw was driving to Ramsey to pick up a passport application form and finding out that parking near the post office was virtually  impossible because the Market Square parking area was being dug up.  The only consolation is that next week can’t possible be worse, I hope.

I should never express an opinion because it is almost always proved wrong - and usually sooner rather than later.  Last week I mentioned that the sedum spectable “flower so late that most of the butterflies have departed before the nectar is available.”  This week while I was watching the birds, I noticed a speckled wood on the paler pink sedum.  It was missing most of one back wing and must have had a close encounter with a bird, probably a robin because I have seen them trying to catch butterflies.

Later I saw two more butterflies on the same plant.  One was a small tortoiseshell.

The other was a red admiral which flew away as I approached but landed on one of the darker pink sedums near the kitchen.

I went out to check on the favourite buddleia.  Most of the flowers have gone to seed but there were still a few small second flush flowers which were very popular.

I was reading about buddleia recently and discovered that it was named to honour the Rev. Buddle.  This made me wonder whether I have always pronounced it wrong.  Should it be Buddle-ia rather than Budd-leia?  To add to the confusion, it is sometimes spelt buddleja!

Well by Saturday, all I had for the blog was a batch of butterfly photos - almost identical to many others from the last few weeks.  I suggested a walk at Pooyldooey so that I could take some photos for the blog and also to see whether there were any swans on the Sulby river upstream from the harbour.  Our son had sent me photos of a family of swans on one of the canals near his home in London but I only saw a few adult mute swans in Ramsey harbour when we drove along the quay on Friday.  I hoped to find out where the group that congregate there in winter went during the breeding season.  

We crossed the white bridge and walked up the path on the north side of the river.  We passed the confluence of the Auldyn and Sulby Rivers.  Our little Auldyn River runs down the glen from its source near Mountain Box and emerges under a canopy of overhanging branches.  There was just a trickle of water on Saturday, but after heavy rain the torrent of water is strong enough to wash down rocks and pebbles and deposit them in the Sulby.

A little further upstream there was a line of large rocks across the river.  We tried to work out their purpose.  They were too far apart to be stepping stones - and the wrong shape.  The only thing we could think of was that they were there to prevent all terrain vehicles going further upstream at low tide.

Our target was the reed beds which seemed a good place for swans to build their big nests.   

The informal path, probably only used by anglers, was deteriorating.

And when we reached the reed beds it disappeared entirely.

There was a consolation, though.  I noticed a beautiful male common blue butterfly at the edge of the reeds.

There was no indication of any swan activity in the area, so we returned to the white bridge.  As we crossed the bridge, I took a photo of a small convoy of mallards.  They had swum upstream to avoid some dogs that were enjoying a dip near the ford and were returning to their favourite spot near the bridge.

Downstream from the bridge we saw two young  herring gulls.

And later we saw this bird on the far side of the river.  It confused us.  Its body looked too dark to be a thrush . . . its head was too light to be a blackbird . . . it had the wrong colour beak for a fieldfare.  We decided that it must be a thrush which had been bathing in the river.  Its dry head looked right and the feathers on its body must have been wet which made them look dark.

There were also some grey wagtails on the opposite bank but they moved too fast for me to get a photo and I was also too slow to get a good shot of a magpie.  But I did find some late flowers up in the park.  This white bindweed could be added to the list of wildflowers that I prefer not to have in our garden.

And then I found some meadow cranesbill - one of my favourites and closely related to the mauvy/blue perennial geraniums in the garden.

This morning we walked down to the harbour to count the swans.  There were two near the ships below the swing bridge and this distant group of six near the harbour mouth.

From across the river, I took a photo of the ongoing work at the Market Square - the cause of Friday’s parking frustration.  They are planting some trees and apparently the square is being “enhanced”.  The good news is that 66 parking spaces will be retained.

So the location of the missing swans has not been discovered. Their breeding ground is well hidden from snooping paparazzi.  I have read that mute swans either drive the juveniles out of the breeding ground as soon as their plumage is predominantly white (in late autumn or winter) - or move with their brood to the wintering area.  So it will probably be some time before they return to the harbour.

It seems most likely that the breeding pairs of swans are somewhere on the Island.  It has been proved by ringing the birds that they can fly across the Irish Sea to neighbouring countries but this is not common behaviour even though Manx swans are more likely to travel than those hatched in England.  There was an interesting article about this subject in the Irish Examiner last year  http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/outdoors/richard-collins/the-adventures-of-our-swans-300217.html