A day with the Swans

Today I visited the Swans' nest at an undisclosed location here in Tidewater, Virginia. This is my fourth visit to the nest site and finally cygnets were coming into the world. Below you can see Mama Swan sitting in the nest where she had already spent more than 30 days. What does she have here? How many are there? When I got there this morning there were only six, it appears that by the end of the day there were 8 according to another photographer that also monitors the site.

A closer look...the young ones are gray in color and chirp most of the time. They stay under the mother's wings waiting for the unborn siblings. Once the whole batch of cygnets are born the mom leaves the nest right away. So perhaps by tomorrow the nest will be abandoned.

The male is always nearby at a minute's call. This morning he may have fallen sleep since two Canadian swans came within 5 feet of the nest; the female did not seem to be bothered by them.

But as soon as the male noticed he flew in and started posturing to scare the Canadian Swans away.

It appears that the posturing did not bother the Canadian geese so eventually the male swam charged the Canadian geese away. It appears that there was a bit of posturing before an actual fight began. It happened, and the male swan can be seen chasing the Canada geese.

I must thank Mr. Dave Tuttle who was kind enough to share the location of the nest. And Joan who gave me guidance on how to put together an article in a blog.