Today I saw the cygnet again. In Danny Kaye’s famous song about an ugly duckling it is referred to as a “he” so I will liberally refer to my cygnet as a he too to save a battle in pronouns.
The first time I saw him, in the summer, he was about as big as a duck, but his long neck gave him away and I thought,
“I’ve never seen a brown swan before!”
I beetled home and looked in my bird book and saw that the brown plummage belonged to the juvenile of the species. Since then I’ve waited for the day when I can see him turning snowy white like his parents who are the only two swans on the lake amongst Canada geese and moor hens, gulls and mallards, heron and pigeons. The same two who refused the kind offer of seed and water the other day.
At today’s viewing he was amongst the reeds where he was playing with a few pea hens. He was almost full grown now so was really only fooling himself by trying to blend in with the ducks.
I swerved off the pathway and down the grassy bank to the water’s edge. There I stood and waited for my iPod Touch to warm up imagining him growing bored and swimming off in a huff of brown, downy feathers before I could get a snapshot of his elegant, dull coloured, beauty.
As I stood and waited he swam towards me, I took a step closer and he began to get his footing on the muddy bottom of the shallows. I caught his eye and snapped a shot, he became coy and turned his flexible neck behind him to ruffle a few neck feathers.
He is a swan, no doubt about it.
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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