Lake Ginninderra Jottings. Often about Black Swans!

This afternoon, on the shore just N of JKMP, I found the brood. This time it was the Pen, colour banded right leg, that was cranky with Yori and me. She came bustling towards us and I think would have attacked had we not pulled away. The Cob stayed on the water with the cygnet.  

Finally, this afternoon I managed to read the colour band on the Pen from the family party rearing a late summer brood. She is red   BKC ! She has alluded me for so long – mostly because she was always on the nest whenever I saw her all of April and over the last few days when with her cygnet and Cob she has refused to show me the band on her right leg. The cob, red BJA , of the pair with one surviving cygnet hatched on early May when I was already in the USA. He is banded left leg and often is most obliging when I have encountered him! He is often cranky over Yori being at the water's edge near him or, of late, his pen and cygnet. The cygnet would be 6-7 weeks old by now. The brood today was in the basin on the shore where waterbirds are frequently fed by the public. I managed a good picture of the cygnet.  

Confirmed the cob's band details today of the family with a single surviving cygnet. A short walk with Yori between 3:00 and 3:30pm.  

 Late afternoon today the brood was found along the shoreline just N of JKMP. The swan on the right in each of these pictures is the Cob, red BJA but I have not been able to read the red right leg band on the other adult, the Pen. Very frustrating! I think this is the only surviving cygnet from this brood from a nest that was not far away from where these pictures were taken today. 

  Mid afternoon today and the family party was found in the basin at JKMP. Now down to only one cygnet. I do not know how many were in the brood at completion of the hatch because I was away in the USA at that time. However, this cygnet is not more than about 5 to 6 weeks old.