Black Swans are a common sight in our wetlands, and in spring both adults cruise the shallows with their offspring. In certain parts of Herdsman Lake they are fairly accustomed to humans, making it easy to observe their grey cygnets preen and do the occasional shakedown in order to keep parasites and bacteria at bay. Mum and dad always keep a watchful eye though, as young swans are sometimes attacked and killed by rivalling family’s cobs.
Black Swan (Cygnus artrata) Herdsman Lake, Western Australia
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It reminds me one very special black swan I saw and photographed in a mountain lake in Northern Taiwan in 2010. This wonderful creature responded to a musician’s play by swimming very quickly across the lake and moved its body according to the melody of the music. Simply amazing!
I’ll send you some pictures.
That is pretty amazing, Stephen, and thank you for these lovely pictures! It must have been at ease with those tunes playing. Great duck-escort too; did they get rewarded with food?
Thanks for the image – never actually seen such a cygnet before (do not have them around my parts) – very cute