Uxbridge welcomes new swan babies
Nancy Melcher
It’s HAPPENED! We have cygnets (baby swans) back on Elgin Pond! There are five fuzzy grey babies swimming with Mum (‘Petunia’) and Dad (‘Cooper’) now, after several weeks with only one adult cruising the waters there.
GOING ALL PAPA BEAR ON THOSE BABIES - Uxbridge offers a hearty congratulations to ‘Cooper’ (left) and ‘Petunia,’ who recently welcomed five new cygnets to Elgin Pond. Photo by John Cavers
Uxbridge’s swans are the trumpeter species. They’re the largest swans in the world, weighing up to 13.5 kg and with a wingspan almost three meters! They’re the heaviest of birds in the world that are capable of flight. Adults have white feathers, dark grey feet, and black bills and eyes. Cygnets are grey fluffballs with pinkish legs when they hatch, but they soon grow grey feathers. It’s only in their second year that they gain white feathers. Canada geese are noticeably smaller, weighing on average 4.5 kg with a wingspan of 1.5 meters.
Trumpeters feed on aquatic plant material and the occasional insect or snail on the stems. They will also dig in muddy pond bottoms for the roots of plants. That’s how they might ingest lead from old fishing weights and buckshot. In winter they may eat grass and discarded grains in fields. Cygnets also eat insects, small fish, and crustaceans to get more protein as they grow, switching to a more plant-based diet after a few months.
In 1935 there were only 69 trumpeter swans recorded in all of North America. Conservation efforts have been wildly successful, with 3,722 birds in 1968, and the count in 2015 showed more than 63,000 birds! Wow!! It may be over 100,000 swans now, a decade later.
Our town is lucky that these graceful birds want to make their home with us. Their images grace the Township webpages and summer banners. Please remember they are wild animals. Don’t try to get close, and most importantly don’t feed them. Lots more information can be found at www.trumpeterswansociety.org.
Nancy Melcher is The Nature Nut. Send details of your sightings or questions about the natural world to: general@melcher.cx