Swans and ducklings and abandon robin's egg- oh my!

Last year on fathers day you may recall how we stumbled upon some resident swans during an evening walk. We learned that they come every spring, so we went hunting and this is what we found...

 When we first arrived, the swans were out in the water near the nest. Above you can see one in the water and the other on the river bank just starting back toward the nest (that was two feet in front of where we were standing with a fence separating us).

 The first swan stood here for literally 10-15 minutes drying herself off. She would take her beak and stretch it as far as she could under her body, rub her feathers a little and then flick the water away from her body. It was so fascinating to watch the agility she had with her neck.

Later her mate joined her. She wouldn't go and sit on her nest, until her mate was there- so of course we then had to watch him dry off too. Then after she waddled over to the nest, she started touching up the nest. She reached for just the right reeds to bring up to the top, or support the base. Again, this process took about 15 minutes. It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "nesting" for pregnant mothers.

There were 7 eggs when we saw them, and apparently there were 9 in total. Sadly, as has happened every recent year, the nest got flooded out with heavy rains and rising river waters. There were no cygnets from this family. =(

 In somewhat happier news, there were many ducklings for the children to see and feed at my Nana's home. I say somewhat, because every year this ducklings are threatened by crows who swoop down and steel them. We saw the crows attack a few times, but thankfully my kids ran over yelling at the crows to go away to scare them off. This went over really well with all the old folks! ;)

 Oh and the abandon robin's egg; Theo found this on the boulevard where we parked the car the evening we went in search of the swans.