Seven is Cleotoo's lucky number. After about 35 days of incubation, seven pearly grey fuzz balls stretched, yawned and gazed at the Loch Alpine landscape and lakescape. They saw mom and dad who announced, "Let's do lunch." In single file they trooped to the water's edge, flopped in and followed mom to the salad bar. Dad paid the check.
This annual spring occurrence was a first in that it was the earliest hatching in our 39 year swan history. It occurred on April 28". Cleotoo did not have to waste time picking out a home site. She was happy with her old address so she spent all of five minutes redecorating and then settled down for some heavy concentrating.
One of last year's cygnets came back off and on for about a week looking for food Caesar chased him half-heartedly but recognized him as a youngster and allowed him to eat. I thought this intrusion might disrupt the nesting. Had it been a mature bird, it could have meant the end of the aged Caesar and of Caesar's eggs. A stronger mature bird would destroy the nest and start his own dynasty. Caesar cracked his egg shell thirty years ago.
Lacking originality, the seven cygnets will be named after the "seven dwarves" and I am keeping an eye on Sleepy. He dozes and gets left behind and tires quickly. Cleotoo tolerated him hitching a ride on her back but after a few days discouraged i t One day I saw him hanging onto her side feathers, trying to clamor aboard, while she was tipping-up to bring food to the surface and Sleepy would zoom up in the air and dangle precariously until mom righted herself again. He'll be the first one to be snatched by a predator if he is not strong enough to cope. That is as it should be because life will not be a "bowl of salad greens” after the bountiful summer.
Winter food has to come from the grocery store and Dexter Mill. The money for this was donated by the Fergusons, Marv and Audrey Johnson, the Leonards, Nels and Ev Navarre, Lois Nelson, Marge Shannon, the Stiernas, and an unknown resident who brought me 100 lbs. of grain.
I am grateful to both the known and the unknown who take an interest in the swans' well-being for they add so much excitement, serenity, and beauty to our environment and have become an enduring part of the Loch Alpine scene.
Their offspring are becoming noticeable on surrounding lakes and rivers and whether this is good or bad depends on one's point of view. Being an aggressive, non-native species means that some native species cannot compete and therefore will disappear.
The state is reintroducing the larger, migratory Trumpeter swan, which disappeared from the eastern states early this century when pressed by human population. Their hope is that the European Mute swan will mingle and develop a migration habit which they lack. I know firsthand that the Mute will mingle with the North American Whistling swan because I saw one of our birds, during a migration, stop on Bridgeway Lake with a Whistling swan mate and the next year these same two birds stopped again with two cygnets in tow. I knew this particular swan because he was Caesar's brood mate and his bill had become disfigured in a confrontation with a snapping turtle.