It was my intention to say nothing about this year's cygnets as I prefer buildings to animals but in the end I could resist it no more, having walked past their nest at least once a day for what seemed like several weeks while waiting for them to emerge from their eggs.
There were six eggs from which four cygnets sprung. The other two eggs were abandoned. I was surprised that they did so well as in the early days it looked as no attention was being paid to the first eggs and I even though that they were building a second nest at one point.
But all's well that ends well and the new cygnets are getting much attention, to which they are completely oblivious.
My family went to Ham Common today to look at the swans and cygnets. We crumbled up some digestive biscuits and fed not just the swans and babies but various other colourful ducks, I think some were mandarin ducks. The adult swans protected their babies but let us get very close to them. My husband handed a biscuit directly to one of the adult swans.
ReplyDeleteA lovely day.
Lesley, Paul and David.