Creature of Sanquhar Pond
SPECULATION that a popular Forres beauty spot may be hiding a "creature from the black lagoon" is gathering pace.
The "Gazette" reported an unusually high losses of waterfowl chicks at Sanquhar pond last August, when only one of eight cygnets from a family of swans survived the summer.
A regular visitor to the pond has come forward with an eye witness account of an even bigger bird being dragged under the water by an unidentified beast.
"It was mid afternoon on a sunny day last summer and I had been feeding the ducks by the Sanquhar waterfall at the side of the road," she said. "I saw two herons side-by-side at the edge of the pond. I remember thinking it was an usual sight as I hadn’t seen any herons for a while and I’d never seen two there at the same time before.
"I walked slowly towards them and noticed one was either smaller than the other or perhaps just lower in the water. I was almost beside them when the smaller one disappeared. It looked like it had been pulled under in a second. There was no scuffle in the water or flapping - it just disappeared."
She waited for fifteen minutes, hoping that the missing heron would emerge while the other bird appeared distraught.
"It was crying out with a screechy, noisy call before it flew over to the other side and stood waiting for another ten minutes. I was shocked and went home to tell my husband what I had seen."
She returned the next day and noticed the remaining bird in the same place as she had left it, without its partner.
"Whenever I go back now I try and work out what had happened. If something dragged it under then why was there no struggle? It was so quick. I know it sounds like a fish tail but it happened.
"Some people say that there is a pike or otters or even terrapins (unwanted pets) in the pond that could have taken the heron."
Findhorn Bay Local Nature Reserve Committee chairman Pat Carroll, is currently trying to catch mink in the area and believes that one of their number may have preyed on the large bird.
"Seagulls, mink, pike and cats are predators that commonly prey on ducklings and other young birds while they are on the ground," he said. "There are plenty of mink in Moray so it would not be surprising to hear that they are at Sanquar but it’s more likely to be a pike. A big pike would be more than capable of tackling a young heron."
He added: However, there are also large eel, up to three feet long and twice the thickness of a broomstick, that may have moved into the pond there. Any of these creatures could be responsible."
