It’s another rainy day here, but the temperature has climbed to 13°c and it actually feels like spring. I was able to shed my scarf and mittens and puffy coat and enjoy the freedom of just a rain jacket. Jack and I went to the park to celebrate and we saw the surest sign there is around here that winter is at an end. The swans have returned. During the winter our swans are kept in an indoor pool and it is always a welcome sign when they return to the pond. We have one bonded pair of swans and last year they had three cygnets. I didn’t see the female this morning, so perhaps they have already nested in the quiet end of the creek.
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I think this one has been digging plants from the bottom, but of course, there isn’t much to eat on dry land yet.
Ice Swimmer he was foraging at the bottom while I was there. I tried to get some photos, but when he was head down all you could see was a rather shapeless white puff on the water. They do have a keeper who comes to feed them pellets every morning,
For us it’s the storks.
For some years now there has been a couple near here. When I say a couple, I mean they started with an injured male. Then they found a partner for him. They bred successfully, but the male never migrated, and their offspring seem to be divided on the issue, so some of them are kept inside over winter and some of them fly to sunnier realms.
The return of the storks in general is a hopeful thing, just like the return of the beavers.
Oh dear, the return of the beavers. People here aren’t too pleased about that because they no longer know how to share territory (the humans, I mean), and there is room for conflict, esp considering competing interests (land is often swampy -- humans want it less so, beavers love it more so). Also beaver attacks.
Anyway, pretty swan. :)