Mute Swan Management Project

There has always been a resident population of mute swans in and around Montrose Basin.

Before the reserve came into being they generally kept themselves to themselves, except perhaps when a breeding pair took up residence on the Keptie or the Tayock burn area, when they would defend their territory robustly!

In pre-reserve days they spent many of the winter months in the harbour area, eating the vegetable waste from the food factories. They only moved into the Basin itself in the summer months to feed on the zostera or eelgrass which grows in abundance on the mud.

The Basin is also ideal shelter for them when they moult their flight feathers in late summer, so becoming flightless for a time, and are vulnerable to fox predation. Foxes like to sneak up on their victim, but there is little chance of that out on the flat open mud banks.

Since the reserve was formed in 1981 we have seen changes in swan behaviour. These changes are a natural response by the swans to changes man has made to their environment over the past 21 years.

In the early 80's the waste outfall from food processing activities was altered. The authorities insisted that the waste was smaller and the outfall changed so any food carried in it was now out of reach of the swans.

Although this decision was perhaps a public health requirement, it had some unexpected side-effects. The swans now stayed in the Basin itself, looking for food after their summer supply of zostera finished in October.

For a couple more years the swans continued to have access to potato and carrot washings from October from a farm on the Basin’s edge. However, this was seasonal and only lasted until the potato and carrot processing was finished up around November/December.But the swans still had to eat something from January to April when the zostera would regrow.

At around this time, in an effort to boost incomes, changes took place in farm cropping patterns. More winter-sown crops were grown, such as oilseed rape (the oil from which is used to blend into vegetable oil as an industrial lubricant and even as a bio-fuel), winter wheat and winter barley. So fields were now green during the winter.

Guess what the swans did next? You’ve guessed it - they came onto the farm land and started to eat the crops lovingly grown and nurtured by the farmer.

To make matters worse, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), the arm of the government responsible for looking after the environment, insisted that the small amount of potato and carrot waste entering the Basin should be cleaned up.

So the swans now fed on farmland from October until May. Eating as much as a small sheep, you can imagine the damage done. To say relations between the farming community and the reserve management was strained would be an understatement.

Swans cannot be frightened off a field easily. You can walk to within 10 metres but they have no real fear of man because of their semi-domesticated history. So we had to think of another way round the problem.

For 10 years we persisted with feeding the swans by hand to draw them off the crops. Barley, wheat, vegetable waste... we’ve tried it all, with varying degrees of success. The barley tipped on the Basin edge worked, but the large population of ducks enjoyed the free meal as well - they would get to the barley faster and clean it up before the swans got there!

Duck numbers were being distorted, and in any case, although we had permission, we were doing what we were trying to avoid - tipping waste into the Basin. The SWT ranger at the time, Rick Goater, was spending so much time on this one issue he was finding it hard to perform his other duties.

What’s more, the swans were back on the fields immediately the barley was finished.

By 1998 something really had to be done. Relations between the farming community and Basin management were at an all time low. Farmers had no voice on the management committee at this time and felt excluded from decisions taken, or not taken, which were directly affecting their livelihood. This was a mistake.

Luckily it was recognised as such and in 1998 the management committee went that extra mile and created new seats on the committee for two farmers’ representatives. Out of this, a new trust between the parties evolved which resulted in a new and innovative solution to the swan problem.

We allow the swans to graze freely on a field through the winter. OK, I can hear a collective "duhh!" - but we also had to work out a method of compensation for the resulting crop yield loss, and more importantly, who was going to pay for it.

The result was "collective" compensation. All those involved in the Basin management - NTS, SWT, BASC, Angus Council, the farmers and SNH - were all allocated by agreement a set percentage of the final compensation they would be responsible for paying.

A field of oilseed rape near the "sacrificial field" would be used as a control and the swans kept off it. The treatments to both fields would be identical and overseen by an independent party, namely the Scottish Agricultural College. When the crop came to harvest, the produce from both the sacrificial and control fields would be weighed over a weigh bridge and any yield difference would be the result of swan damage. It was also agreed that the local farmers would take turns, where crop rotation allowed, to have the "sacrificial" field.

The only fly in the ointment was how could we make the swans understand they were allowed in this field of oilseed rape and not that one? We employed the services of a garden ornament and created the temporary post of swan scarer. The garden ornament is a plastic swan normally seen in garden ponds, which we placed in the field we want the swans to use.

Like geese and other birds, the swan, it turns out, is easily decoyed. The swan scarer is employed for varying periods to scare the swans off any other field. It works.

The Montrose Basin mute swan demonstration project is now in its fifth year. The committee is now pulling all its information together and will present a paper to the Scottish Executive next year. The "swan problem" has been turned into something of value. It has enabled the management committee to evolve into a much more rounded body. It is a good demonstration of how well the Basin works, despite involving parties you might otherwise think would be in opposition.

It is amazing what a wee bit of compromise can achieve. We all want the same thing, after all - a healthy and vibrant nature reserve which is a pleasure to live by.

Grant Baird - October 2002