Our Missing Birds Return
Posted: 28 April 2022
With the Geese Nesting Diana and I had become concerned that it had been a while since we'd seen any swans and, most recently we'd only seen a lone swan and not a pair. Why worry? Because since 2017, when the swans had begun nesting on our island, there had been no need to oil the eggs of the geese. The swans did the job for us. They ensured no goslings survived.
Today Diana came in from the grounds where she had been doing some work to give a "Good News" report. There were a pair of swans on the Peninsula. A little later I took my first photographs of them, as they came to feed by our lounge.
Later in the afternoon I took a walk around the grounds. Crossing the bridge to the island I looked back to see the cob cruising pass our dinghy launching point in the quay heading behind the house.
A few minutes later he had joined the pen on the other side of the lake.
Then we swapped ends. Standing on the decking behind the house, I looked back to see the swans close to the bridge and about to pass under it. When Diana came into the house for our meal she reported that the swans had left the lake and had made their way down the dyke. She wanted to know when they normally started nesting.
Looking back at the photos taken in 2017, the nest was well developed by 30 April and the pen was sitting on it. In 2018 the first nest photograph taken was on 5 May and in 2019 12 May so it looks as if we shouldn't worry yet. Perhaps those dates don't matter too much as, later, I saw one of the swans settling down for the night on the lawns behind the cottages and it could be that the other was somewhere else on the site.
