Swan family update

We have really enjoyed watching our little swan family grow up this summer. I posted these pictures of them about a month ago. The babies are getting very big now.

This is one of the parents. It is amazing how flexible those long necks are! Look at how they sleep, with their necks laid down on their backs.




























Here are the babies with one of the parents. The canal is right under our living room windows, and almost every day, someone on a floor above us tosses bread crumbs out the window for the ducks and swans. Lately they'll go for a swim with one parent while the other one naps. When they were smaller, they never went out without both parents. We've been able to watch the parents teach the babies how to look for food. They go down the canal a bit to where the water moves faster and stick their heads under water. I don't know what they catch that way, but it looks like they like whatever it is they find!



This is the ritual after a swim. All of the swans come up on the little island in front of our building for an hour or so of grooming. All of those little white and gray spots in the grass are feathers. The babies lose more and more of their gray baby feathers every day. Their chests are mostly white now.