partner read about a pair of swans that built their nest right beside the lookout deck of a pond at samuel smith park out west of toronto. naturally, partner wanted to go and see for himself and he took me along to take a photo. well, what do you know, the nest is about just a few metres off the deck. the female was "on duty" and the male was nowhere to be found. it was puzzling because there were so many predators where this nest was as this is a conservation park with all kinds of wildlife going about. a big dog, if it really wants to can swim to it. starlings, wrens and the red-winged ones just dart about at the nest, as well as ducks, mallards and the omnipresent canadian geese.
partner brought some buns with him. around here, you can feed the swans if they're in a pond but not in the lake. but i told him if you throw bread in there and she doesn't want to leave her eggs then the other birds would really try to go after the food and it would agitate the mommy swan. bonehead (that's partner for you) still tried to throw pieces of bread. of the five throws, only one reached the nest, hit the swan actually and she was quite pissed thinking an audacious little bird did it. she eventually found the piece of bread and ate it, but i was afraid she'd choke as they need the bread with water.
mallards and birds had a fiesta. then when we thought they had all taken the pieces that partner threw, they still kept coming. turned out the people before us did the same thing. meanwhile the male swan was still nowhere to be found. he did show up eventually but only chased the geese and the mallards. he wouldn't even go near the nest and they never switched.
in any case, the swan from this morning, gave us a bit of a show when she pushed her downs to cover her eggs. this one has six eggies being incubated.
i wonder how many my swans actually have?
meanwhile, back at the pond near our home, old friend mr. swan was at the far end of the pond, leaving his mate hidden in the reeds in their nest. we figured the females at this stage of their nesting/incubating probably don't like the males around them. i got to read up on that. we passed by again late tonight at our pond and tee-hee! the male swan's indeed been kicked out of the matrimonial home.
it's victoria day weekend here in canada so we don't go to work tomorrow. and you can bet partner's going to wake me up early tomorrow to drive down to the west end. i, on the other hand, had taken out the tall step ladder (i hope i don't trip on it in the middle of the night) so i can have a peek at our own swan's nest.
this was taken in a hurry when i saw the lady swan stand up so my focus is not that great, but trust me, there were six eggs.
thank you so much, my friends, for your visits and comments; i appreciate them a lot!
Oh, how exciting! What an adventure to go see this and now you have future adventures to see the eggs hatch, babies grow. I love how she seems to be tending them/turning them?
You did get a nice shot Vikki. We will be heading out to the Stan Reynolds Museum Tomorrow which houses a number of antique vehicles as well as an aviation museum
Beautifully captured, I hope to get to see mine swimming soon. We are farm sitting hours away this coming weekend so will miss going to see them. Careful up them steps!
That is a very cool shot. I so love swans. My favorite died this last winter. The cemetery where he lived is getting three pair later this summer. They say that whatever lake they first fly out of is home.
