A New Day, A New Egg

Look closely and you can see an egg beneath Mama swan

Egg can be seen clearly

Dad looks on whilst Mama settles down

I am pleased to report that Mama swan has laid another egg after having destroyed one two days ago. The egg was clearly visible this morning when Des went to work and I took these pictures a short time afterwards.

Later in the day, our dear friend Mags, took some pictures that showed that the egg had been somewhat covered by the rope fibres that are being used as nesting material. This was obviously to protect it, both from damage, and the cold.

Contentment Returns

After the trauma of yesterday when we saw Mama Swan destroy her egg it looks as if a bit of normality has returned for the swans.

This morning the owner of the dinghy and the barge to which it is attached very kindly shredded some more rope for nest material. My spy tells me that Mama Swan could hardly wait to get back on the nest!

On my visit this afternoon she was enjoying a snooze in the sunshine. She was soon joined by the male who then promptly decided to have forty winks as well.

We now need to find out whether another egg has been laid..............

Bad Egg?

Yesterday the local swans were at a totally different nesting site. There was an egg but unfortunately the site was beginning to sink.

Today we saw they were back on a dinghy they had successfully used a couple of years ago. (See earlier blog).

There was an egg. Had the egg been moved from the other location or was this a completely new egg?

The hen swan appeared content and seemed to be settling down on the nest. Five minutes later she stands up, stretches her neck and makes a noise. The next thing we saw was her attacking the egg with her beak and breaking it. She then unceremoniously removed the shell and tossed it into the water and then started to clear away the yolk and clean the surrounding area.

It was an unbelievable and somewhat distressing sight. Did she know that there was something wrong with this egg and that is why she destroyed it? Nature moves in mysterious ways and we shall see waht happens over the next couple of days and weeks.

Well Mama Duck has never returned to our balcony which is a great shame. However, there is still plenty of wildlife for us to see in the area around Greenland Dock where we live.

This year a pair of swans have been nesting on an old dinghy attached to one of the houseboats on the dock. The owners of the boat gave the swans an old rope which they have shredded up to make their nest. It looks like straw but is in fact rope fibres.

On April 30th there were 8 eggs

Where is Mama?

We have not seen sight nor feather of Mama for about 1o days now. We even put some food out but all we saw was a Wood Pigeon having a good feast. We are beginning to wonder if she is going to come back at all this year. We are away over Easter and would love to have some news to report on our return. Watch this space..........

The Balcony Opposite

She spots something and thirty seconds later flies off. I tried to catch her in flight but neither I nor my little camera were quick enough.
Mama Duck with a pigeon


Well, I was up with the lark looking at a duck! I saw Mama Duck on the balcony opposite this morning where she sat for about an hour and twenty minutes, snoozing, preening and ignoring pigeons. I am beginning to wonder if our balcony has fallen out of favour and the balcony opposite is now the balcony of choice........ It is interesting to note that Dada Duck is now nowhere to be seen.

This was on Monday. Mama Duck having a look down from the balcony opposite. She did not fly over to our balcony and just wandered off round the corner with Dada! It is now Wednesday and we have not seen her for a couple of days. We are hoping that she has not decided to nest elsewhere!