Swan Rescue
May. 21st, 2006 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drploktaI took ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flickgc down to the corner of our dock to see the cygnets from my previous post.
(Click on a thumbnail for a larger image.)
In my previous cygnet photo, you may be able to see that one of the cygnets is struggling to get out of the water because its head is caught in some wire netting, and it's too stupid to back out.
I figured it would get out eventually, and indeed it had done so when we went back, but clearly someone less optimistic (or fatalistic) than me had called a local animal welfare group, as there was a guy in a wetsuit with wirecutters about to climb in the water. He had a canoe for use in such situations, but there was no way to lower it into the dock, because the sides were too steep.
Boris and Petronella were not amused.
Not at all amused.
After getting a nasty bash on the head, he decided discretion was the better part of valour, and cut the rope connecting the two nesting platforms. This let him pull the swans' platform into shore where he could climb down onto it and his colleagues could use a pole to fend off the swans. The swans realised they were beaten and evacuated the nest.
They drifted around on the dock, and didn't seem too disturbed.
Meanwhile, our hero was now able to strip out all the wire mesh and put in a ramp for the cygnets to climb in and out of the water.
The cygnets were getting tired by now, and tried to hitch a ride on Petronells's back.
When we left, he'd reattached the rope and everything was back the way it was, although the swans and cygnets were still swimming around suspiciously. He also came down to our corner of the dock to cut a hole in the wire mesh around the stupid coots' nest so that their babies can get in and out once they've grown too big to fit through the holes.
flickgc down to the corner of our dock to see the cygnets from my previous post.(Click on a thumbnail for a larger image.)
In my previous cygnet photo, you may be able to see that one of the cygnets is struggling to get out of the water because its head is caught in some wire netting, and it's too stupid to back out.
I figured it would get out eventually, and indeed it had done so when we went back, but clearly someone less optimistic (or fatalistic) than me had called a local animal welfare group, as there was a guy in a wetsuit with wirecutters about to climb in the water. He had a canoe for use in such situations, but there was no way to lower it into the dock, because the sides were too steep.
Boris and Petronella were not amused.
Not at all amused.
After getting a nasty bash on the head, he decided discretion was the better part of valour, and cut the rope connecting the two nesting platforms. This let him pull the swans' platform into shore where he could climb down onto it and his colleagues could use a pole to fend off the swans. The swans realised they were beaten and evacuated the nest.
They drifted around on the dock, and didn't seem too disturbed.
Meanwhile, our hero was now able to strip out all the wire mesh and put in a ramp for the cygnets to climb in and out of the water.
The cygnets were getting tired by now, and tried to hitch a ride on Petronells's back.
When we left, he'd reattached the rope and everything was back the way it was, although the swans and cygnets were still swimming around suspiciously. He also came down to our corner of the dock to cut a hole in the wire mesh around the stupid coots' nest so that their babies can get in and out once they've grown too big to fit through the holes.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-21 02:36 pm (UTC)Must keep an eye out to see if our pair of swans has cyggies.
There's a duck with 5 duckings in the brook, I am constantly surprised by the amount of wildlife it supports for a waterway with so many shopping trollys and the like. Max likes the look of the ducklings.
Haven't seen the kingfisher yet this year and it's too cold and wet to go looking today.
Here's a picture of my neighbour, Stephie on the pipe from Brunner Mond which is the cat superhighway across the brook.
Stephie is my little friend. She gets bullied by lots of other kids (currently for having curly blonde hair) and as I was the bullied kid when I was her age, I know what that's like. She and her little boy friend (don't know his name but she introduced him to me as her servant...) build a den on top of the slide and were in tears the other day as the other kids had wrecked it. So I bought them some sweets. Stephie, being well trained, took them home to Mum to check she could have them! Good girl.
We take Max for walks in the wood, this one was when it was very, very, very, frosty.
Max the Mighty in His Tree.
FF
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 03:17 pm (UTC)I think we met at <plokta.con> so I decided to add you - I hope you don't mind!