It’s been a bad week in the micro-ecosystem that is our pond. And it can all be blamed on hormones.
The white swans, previously of good standing, have transmogrified into monsters.
The male has taken to attacking anything that moves. First, a whistler duck mysteriously died, killer unknown, then the heinous crime, the death of my close friend Bruce, the male black swan found mutilated and headless by the pond. Gone was the one animal that I could have a decent conversation with…
At first, a fox was suspected, but on replacement with another male black swan, the true culprit became clear; the white male. His immediate attack on the new swan showed his true colours (er…white?)
The new black male had to go for his own safety, to be replaced by another female.
Then the decision was made to remove the white male before further deaths ensued and because it was discovered that, in fact, the white male was an imposter, an illegal. His black feet gave him away, marking him as a swan not to be kept in domestication by law. We had been sold a dud.
Removing him was far from easy, and ended in disaster. Having found somewhere that would take him, no questions asked, the transport proved his undoing. So stressed was he from his enforced removal, and subsequent cramming into a box, that the box became his coffin, as his heart gave out en route. A sad day…
The whistler has been replaced, and a pair of Ruddy Shelducks added.
So now peace has returned to the pond, as both swan couples are now lesbian, much less prone to warlike behaviour than us males.
Here’s all the recent pond photos…
[AFG_gallery id=‘51’]
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