I spent much of yesterday watching six cygnets hatch;
or maybe six eggs
hatch;
or maybe a Black Swan hatching six eggs.
As my son would say:
whatever.
For much of the time the non-sitting adult (male, i think) swam around the
nest,
which was on a swan-made island about 2 metres from the water’s
edge.
It stopped occasionally to pull up reeds and dump them on the nest in
approved swan fashion.
At one point there was a large splash which drew my attention and had me
observe
the swan toss a fish (20 cm. long at a guess) from the water.
It
then quickly repeated this action three times before the fish escaped or the
swan grew bored.
Question : did the swan think it was getting lunch or was it protecting the
nest ?
roger curnow
PS: by the end of the day there were six new
cygnets.
