And they grow where in December, at six months of age, all are over 20 pounds and hard to distinguish from the parents. Note the orange bill on the two parents. At this age, the parents begin to distance themselves, first by chasing away the cygnets at feeding time. Soon, the male cygnets are kept out of the family circle followed in a few weeks by the females. In January, the distancing becomes downright hostile and any cygnets in the territory will be attacked and chased out.
In an amazing testimony to their parenting skills, all six cygnets of Stan and Wendy became viable juveniles and were placed in pairs for what hopes to be a long and happy life. Clare and Greta, femal
Pippa, a 4 year old female, died of avian botulism toxin a few days ago. She was a sibling of Susie, and lost out to Susie for the affection of Sully. She had been solo for almost a year. I found Pi
Stan and Wendy performed their annual hatching, getting six babies in the water on Day 2, or May 4. For some reason, by Day 4 the flock was down to five. This is not unusual, with the likely cause b