THE two pairs of coot that attempted to breed on the loch at Tweedbank have both been unsuccessful on their second attempt. One pair managed to hatch six but that soon dropped to one and it has disappeared.

The other pair built an odd nest up in one of the overhanging willows. To reach the nest they climbed up a thick branch that acted as a ramp to the nest about six feet off the surface of the loch.

The female must have considered she was safer up here than on the loch’s surface. She sat tight for her prescribed time of around 22 days and last week three tiny chicks were seen on the surface of the loch being tended by both parents.

Normally a second brooding nest would have been built but it appears that the young chicks perished very quickly before a place of safety was constructed. So this is another year with little success despite brave attempts.

On July 17 only three of the adult coots were visible, two on the school side of the loch and one on the opposite side of the island.

The female on the school side was the bird I reported as having been ringed in the winter at Stirling.

All is not lost as the moorhens have successfully produced three chicks which keep themselves well hidden on the island. At the moment it is only the adults who are venturing off.

The mute swans on the loch include the breeding pair and six non-breeding birds. The natural food on the loch has benefited the lone cygnet. It is now of a good size and looks well so it should survive. It is also not so dependent on its parents and holding its own against the other wildfowl.

On July 17 the mallard flock had peaked at 144 including a female with two almost fully-grown young. They were busy feeding on the water weed and possibly some of the algal bloom. Four tufted duck were managing to dive for food illustrating that there is invertebrate life in the loch.

Just over a week ago when looking at a friend’s garden pond in Kelso the water was alive with little black insect larvae when a strange creature came into view.

At first it looked like a piece of decaying whitish grey-coloured straw but on a closer look it was alive and slowly moving. It looked like it was composed of two parts, a thick body part about 1.5 cm long with a thin tail.

This was completely new and I had never seen anything like this before. A few photographs were taken and then home to put my rough description onto my search engine on the computer and clicked on “images”.

Almost instantaneously the identity of the creature was revealed – a rat-tailed maggot! This I soon discovered was the larvae of a drone fly.

On searching further a description was found: “A characteristic feature of rat-tailed maggot is a tube-like, three-segmented, telescoping breathing siphon located at its posterior end. This acts like a snorkel, allowing the larva to breathe air while submerged. The siphon is usually about as long again as the maggot’s body (20 mm when mature), but can be extended as long as 150 mm. This organ gives the larva its common name. It lives in stagnant, oxygen-deprived water, with a high organic content. It is fairly tolerant of pollution and can live in sewage lagoons and cesspools.” Once the larvae turns into the insect it is described as being a bit like a honey bee with one set of wings and about 15mm in length and can be found in hedgerows, meadows and gardens. I may have seen this as a flying insect little realising that it spent part of its life as an aquatic creature. One writer encourages looking for the drone fly on sunny days close to yellow flowers and feeds on nectar and pollen.

The tree bumblebees made a further appearance in my garden last week on my garden bramble which is still flowering. Last week my wife and I were with our grandchildren at Floors Castle Gardens and as we looked along the rows of nectar providing flowers there were plenty of bumblebees to fascinate them. The bee’s pollen sacs were full of white, yellow and even bright orange pollen but no tree bumblebee.