Well over a hundred eider were paddling around at the entrance to Loch Fleet last Monday in groups varying in numbers from half-a-dozen up to fifty or so. Most of them....
....appeared to be males but they were of several generations, the fully adult ones, which are over three years old, having the very characteristic pale green around their necks. To reach maturity, the drakes go through eight moults, the proportion of white feathers becoming greater each time, though this is complicated by their having an 'eclipse plumage' during the non-breeding season when the white areas largely become a blackish brown.
The groups were processing gently around the loch entrance each accompanied by....
....a few gulls. We've noticed this before and can only assume that the gulls harass them for the food - mostly mussels - which the ducks bring to the surface, though we've never actually seen this happen.
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