The return of the swans

[dianeduane]

Swans have nested in the little pond behind our house for at least fifty years...perhaps longer. In 2005, one of the pair who'd been coming back to nest every spring suddenly died of natural causes (old age, the local vet thought). His or her mate -- no way to tell which it was; swans are tough to sex -- stayed on the pond for months, returning again and again to the spot where it had last seen its mate alive. It returned last year, too, still looking for its counterpart.

This year it seems not to have come back. But two youngsters have arrived. Here's a minute of video courtesy of YouTube: Swan Trek, theNext Generation...

 

Comments

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Two mute swans?
They are beautiful and would appear to be a pair from their behaviour too.
What'sthe music?

[dduane.livejournal.com]

It's an air called "The Wild Geese." Probably Irish, to judge by the title.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Certainly sounds Irish!
Hope this pair continue to delight your pond for many years to come.

[wolfette]

In Holyrood Park, at St Margaret's Loch, there have always been swans....

but at the moment there must be 30 or so swans in one tiny "duckpond" barely 100 metres long. Plus a whole flock of geese, numbering over 50 (see my post of a few days ago when they held up the traffic for 10 minutes crossing the road to graze).

[anghara.livejournal.com]

That's beautiful. Thank you for posting that.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That's a really nice little film.

Am I right to think that the tune (or a Scottishised version) was used in Highlander?

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Not sure; it might have been. (It's been an age since I watched "Highlander.")

The title on the CD is "The Wild Geese." Here's the CD: "The Lilting Banshee" (http://www.amazon.com/Lilting-Banshee-Eileen-Monger/dp/B000004523)

[pameladean]

Oh, they're glorious. Thank you.

P.

[origamilady.livejournal.com]

Absolutely gorgeous -Then again one of my favorite books as a child was The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. . .


The New Years Eve at the bar in County Wicklow, made me homesick for Ireland, I would dearly love to go back there again sometime soon. (I have family in Dublin)

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

black swans are even harder to sex - bnecause a huge proportion of the pairs are homosexual. Who then proceed to chase off other pairs and adopt the nests. So parentage in blackswans is kind of complicatedm, because this goes on and on and on.. the kids do great tho - the most aggressive gay pair monopolise the most productive part of the lake, and their forcefully adopted offspring get the benefit.

[allasomething.livejournal.com]

ooooh... white swans :)

I always think that white swans look strange... beautiful, but strange. Probably because I grew up near a lake with many many black swans (who would steal your lunch off the picnic tables if you put it down...)