Monday, 11 January 2010

The Ugly Ducklings

I've been following this family of swans since mid-December, when I found them finding weed for the cygnets in the shallows near the Wooden Boat School at Franklin. They have six cygnets, which seemed like a large family to me. Having watched duck families whittled down by predators and roads, I wondered how many of these would survive. However, they were much larger than a duckling, nearly as big as the biggest ducks nearby. Could they all grow to be graceful swans like their parents?





1 comment:

Denis Wilson said...

I take it that 5 were whittled down to 4.
80% survival is not bad.
Cheers
Denis