Blackford cygnets

I had heard that the cygnets on Blackford Pond had hatched a couple of days ago so I went down in the early evening to have a look as I hoped things would be quieter by then. There weren’t many people about and the whole pond was peaceful. It took me back to this time last year when we were in the first lockdown and I was very keen not to get closer than two metres to anyone else which wasn’t easy. I’m now a lot more relaxed having had both my jags and also there seems to be a lot of evidence that you are very unlikely to catch the virus outside. 

If you look hard, you should be able to see all eight cygnets. I was lucky as they were feeding and on the water for as long as I was there. The female swan is in the middle of the photo and the male to the right. It's easy to tell them apart as the male swan has a ginger head. That's said to be due to iron deposits in the bed of the pond, but I don't know why he has a ginger head and the female doesn't.