06 Saturday Aug 2022
Posted in birds
Cygnet. It’s an unusual word, a strange combination of letters, so I checked the Oxford Dictionary for its origin: ‘Late Middle English from Anglo-Norman French cignet, diminutive of Old French cigne ‘swan’, based on Latin cycnus, from Greek kuknos‘.
The Mute swan cygnets below are some of this year’s fledglings in Cardiff Bay. They’re now mostly living independently from their parents, though still like to keep close company with their siblings.
13 Wednesday May 2020
When I spotted a pair of Mute swans and their six cygnets on an inlet of the River Ely on yesterday’s exercise walk, the old song ‘Way down upon the Swannee River’ immediately came to mind. The song has nothing to do with swans, of course (it’s about an African slave longing for ‘de old plantation’), and most of you are probably too young to even remember the tune – I think it was just the combination of swans and river that made it pop into my brain. But enough of the strange workings of my mind during lockdown…. Isn’t this little family just gorgeous?!
10 Monday Jul 2017
Tags
baby birds, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Coot, cootlet, cygnet, duckling, Mallard, Mute swan, Roath Park Lake
While it was a pleasure to see the Little egrets at Roath Park on Thursday, it was the other birds that brought me the most joy, especially because there were so many babies to be seen.
Cygnets, cootlets, ducklings, all at various stages of development, could be seen swimming, being fed by their parents and learning to feed themselves, and just sitting dozing in the warm sunshine.
Even the base of the Scott memorial lighthouse has become a nursery for a family of seven little coots.
I defy anyone to look at these and not smile!
01 Monday Aug 2016
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, cygnet, Hans Christian Andersen, Mute swan, swan, The Ugly Duckling
You know Hans Christian Andersen’s story of ‘The Ugly Duckling’, right? The unlovely little bird, who is bullied and abused by his farmyard companions because he doesn’t look like the other ducklings, grows up to become not just another duck but, instead, a very beautiful swan. It was one of my favourite stories as a child, perhaps because I was bullied at a young age for wearing spectacles – not common when I was a kid – and I hoped, in vain, for a similar transformation.
Ever since, I have had a special love of swans, and it has been wonderful as the summer has progressed to watch the little Mute Swan cygnets at Roath Park lake grow into their beauty. Here are just a few of the very many photos in my swan album.
earthstar 
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