My swans have produced their clutch a good ten days later than this time last year. It had got to the point where I thought the late frosts had chilled the eggs. 7 cygnets are now sitting on the bank preening alongside the parent birds having had an introduction to oats earlier.
The female is obviously ravenous after setting for so long, and is eating all she can get, but I was wondering if snapping at flies was teaching feeding behaviour to the cygnets.
Watching the antics of the young clambering onto their mother's back is entertaining especially as it tends to be one on one off. Which she got onto the bank three shot out the back door. I am blessed with a series of bog ponds a stones throw from the front door. In twenty years of visits from otters, mink, martens and herons the only permanent loss has been the dab chicks which is a pity.
Having had a blow to the arm from the cob I can understand how he half killed a young otter one day.
I've had a resident whooper for years, she lost part of a wing on the power line. Known as the Ice Queen she migrates on foot every March down the farm and lodges on various ponds and floods before returning. Unusually she made a second move a few weeks ago and I will have to canvass my neighbours to see where she is. Unlike the mute swans she has never lost her wildness and is very vocal.
The female is obviously ravenous after setting for so long, and is eating all she can get, but I was wondering if snapping at flies was teaching feeding behaviour to the cygnets.
Watching the antics of the young clambering onto their mother's back is entertaining especially as it tends to be one on one off. Which she got onto the bank three shot out the back door. I am blessed with a series of bog ponds a stones throw from the front door. In twenty years of visits from otters, mink, martens and herons the only permanent loss has been the dab chicks which is a pity.
Having had a blow to the arm from the cob I can understand how he half killed a young otter one day.
I've had a resident whooper for years, she lost part of a wing on the power line. Known as the Ice Queen she migrates on foot every March down the farm and lodges on various ponds and floods before returning. Unusually she made a second move a few weeks ago and I will have to canvass my neighbours to see where she is. Unlike the mute swans she has never lost her wildness and is very vocal.
