|
About 2.30 today as we were on our way home from shopping at
Tuggeranong, Esme and I were surprised and delighted to see a pair of Black
Swans shepherding 6 cygnets along the unmade footpath area on Jim Pike Ave,
Gordon (about 100 metres from the junction with Woodcock Ave).
Very reassuringly, after we passed them the oncoming traffic
stopped because the lead swan decided it was time to cross the road. We did a
U-turn after crossing the dam wall at Pt Hutt Pond and went back, to find that
the whole group had crossed the road unscathed and were heading down a grassy
slope towards the Pond.
The cygnets were about the size of pigeons - so I don't think
they were all that old. The Murrumbidgee at Pt Hutt is probably only 500 or so
metres in a straight line from where the group was but its pretty rough country
for such small cygnets and I doubt that the nest was there. I rather suspect it
was beside a small "ornamental dam" that sits between Woodcock Ave and
houses that border Preddey Way. This is still quite a distance from where we saw
them (my guess would be 600-700 metres) but its a much easier walk than from the
river. And I have noticed the adult swans there a couple of times in the
past 2 weeks, although it didn't occur to me that they may be nesting
there.
Bruce
| 