Photographed on North bay, on a bright and flat calm morning, this Eider and three of her five ducklings, were part of a larger crèche, a trio of mothers with a bakers dozen of youngsters in tow.
The crèches are formed to give protection against airborne predators, wandering bonxies and black-backed gulls. For adults and ducklings alike, there’s safety in numbers.
The local name for an Eider is a Dunter, from the old norse – to dunt, to bob up and down.
A garden in Orkney 
😎🙌🏼🤩🙌🏼💚
LikeLiked by 1 person
Looked up how large eider ducks are (50-70cm long), so the ducklings look about half that. I remember that bonxies are pretty big, so I can see how one would make a snack for them, but how big are your local black backed gulls?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Penny, Black-backs are noticeably larger than bonxies or any other gull, your Western gull will be the closest size wise.
Hoy has a good number, there are three breeding colonies on the island that are internationally important, in the Uk it’s a red list bird.
Despite being the world’s largest gull this doesn’t put off the bonxies, there are records of bonxies killing adult black-backs over food or territory. I was up on the moor yesterday and got repeatedly mobbed by two bonxies, nowhere near their nests, they’re seemingly just wired for aggression.
Psycho bonxies apart their only natural predator is the White-tailed eagle, 8 foot wingspan vs the gbb’s 5 and a half foot wingspan. I’ve found the remains of a few greylag goose eagle meals but only once a gbb, although it happens I think it’s probably an uncommon occurrence up here, there are easier meals to be had.
I do wonder if an eagle has ever taken a bonxie, if it had any sense it would take one look and think “sod that”, too risky 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person