Today's gentle morning walk along the Ormsaigbeg shore was interrupted when we spotted a female mallard a couple of hundred metres offshore swimming parallel with the shore and heading for Kilchoan Bay. Behind her, bobbing in the waves, came six little ducklings.
Then we saw a seventh which had been left behind. It immediately became the centre of attention of two gulls but, very surprisingly, neither made any attempt to attack it even though it paddled straight past one.
Suddenly, the duckling, which by this time was several hundred metres behind the rest of the family, made a decision. It turned for shore, and soon after....
....arrived at the rocks about twenty metres away from us, where it used the barnacles....
....to scramble up to safety.
The idea of leaving this little survivor to fend for itself on an exposed shore patrolled by gulls, buzzards and mink was too much for one of our party who....
....scrambled out on the rocks and, with no trouble at all, caught the little duckling and....
....transferred it to the safety and warmth of her coat pocket.
The duckling has now been adopted by the family on a neighbouring croft.
It could be natural selection as Duckling Rescue in an anagram of Reduce Suckling
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