Five tiny new lives, new, adorable, very special lives. The fifth one hatched much later, still soaked when I got there and he was trapped under Wilma’s foot for a while when he first hatched, but once he was with the other cygnets and had rested for a while he was much brighter.
I’ve spent a huge amount of time at the lake today, just sitting with the swan family watching the cygnets, sydnets, I really like that name for them (thought up by Graham from The Waterfowl Sanctuary today) and will let the videos tell the story. Stressful day, very much so! Hopefully not a sign of the months ahead… !!
This evening, on my second lake visit, Sydney was sitting up on the nest with Wilma, both swans sharing the care of the cygnets which I have never seen, but then Syd and his big clumsy feet caused one of the babies to tumble down the side of the nest, it rolled and rolled, landing on its back in the water, unable to get back up. With the position of their air sacs, birds can’t breathe on their backs. Instinct kicked in and I stepped carefully into the water to very quickly slide my hand under baby and raised him back into the nest - that was just my right boot soaked by the stinky black water, maybe salvageable… but then Syd’s clumsy feet struck again, and a second cygnet was on its back so in I went again, both feet, deeper water, and now I need new boots, but that cygnet was also saved so I’m happy.
No rest though, because as I was about to go home and get cleaned up (that black mud STINKS!!), another call came in about ducklings trapped in the weir overflow. Thankfully it was an easy rescue as we have now done so many rescues from there, but it still took four people due to what is involved, that was Rachel, Scott, Stacey, and me - teamwork and two lots of ducklings safely returned to the main lake with their mamas.