Caen Hill Locks (Tuesday 2nd June 2015)

Another stop by at the top of the Caen Hill Locks staircase to check on the swan family that I had rediscovered near to their nest site ten days previously. They were on the same stretch as before, going through the locks as the narrowboats went through and back again.

One swan left it almost too late after the cygnet had drifted between two closing gates and had to force its way through with a great flurry of feathers. My blip was taken just after this incident as they glided slowly towards the boat that had just passed through and was now at the next lock.

I had bumped into the official from the CRT and asked him about the swans. He confirmed that the cygnet was the first hatched, as I had guessed. Apparently two eggs had been removed from the nest at around the time the first hatched, presumably by humans as there were no remnants of shell at the site, as you would have expected if an otter, gull or heron had been the culprit. He thought that the swans had abandoned the nest because of this human intervention, but I was able to tell him that I had seen the pen swan still on the nest a week or more after the two eggs had disappeared.

The other five eggs had also gone, but he thought they might have been removed later by the man who operates a swan rescue centre close by up the canal, so that the nest was not damaged.

At any rate this pair of swans now have one cygnet to rear, who is larger and stronger and less vulnerable to predation with each day.

L.
9.6.2015 (1502 hr)

Blip #1594 (#1844 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #002
Day #1896
LOTD #828 (#949 including archived blips)

Alternatives:
Wildflowers
Cygnet With Parents

A Visit To Caen Hill Locks, 2 June 2015 (Flickr album)

Caen Hill series
Kennet and Avon Canal series
Canals series
Devizes series
Swan series
Landscape series

Also backblipped today:
Smokey 1557 hr (Monday 1st June 2015)

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Mogwai - Like Herod (recorded 10 March 1999, Maida Vale, for Steve Lamacq's Evening Session, Radio One)
This song was from Mogwai's first album Mogwai Young Team in 1997 and usually runs for 11-12 minutes, but for me, the definitive version is this super long live session version. The song was originally called Slint after a US band of that name who were influential on the band.
I remember hearing this when it was broadcast and Stuart from the band was talking to Steve Lamacq about going the extra mile for the session performance. This version subsequently appeared on an album of Evening Session and John Peel recordings entitled Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996–2003, and my copy arrived on this day.

One year ago:
Bowood 2014 #19