Two Parent Family-Trumpeter Swans In Sweden

At the Hour of the Wolf on 30 August on an island in Sweden, I had before me New York Times writer, Tim Egan's, story about the return of trumpeter swans to his favorite place in the west. Here is my own story about "my" trumpeter swans and their return to my favorite place in the east, Ullstämmaskogens naturreservat, Linköping, Sverige.

This URL will take you to his story and my comment filed at 04:00 h from Styrsö.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/opinion/timothy-egan-new-west-renaissance.html?comments#permid=12688428

The Two Parent Family's story for 2014 begins with the return of these two on February 22d, one of the restored ponds between Tinnerö eklandskapet and Ullstämmaskogens naturreservat. I will add to this during the day-it is after all only 2 AM in New York. (Note that you can view any image much better by clicking on it and some can only be seen by clicking and then viewing in photo-album series.)

                                                            The rocky outcrop where she would lay her eggs was still completely ice covered but is just barely visible at the

right edge of this view below of Ullstämma sjön, which for me is The Tree In The Pond lake where a single Alnus glutinosa still stands, now more than three years after the pond was created.




Once the pond was ice free the pair moved to Ullstämma pond along with several Canada Geese that for a time seemed to have eyes for the future birth place of the seven offspring of the swan pair.

Since you never know if you will have time to create the post you have in mind, I give you a typical family picture, this one on June 1, 2014, from their feeding ground in May and June, the next pond upstream from the Tree in the Pond, which is connected by a centuries old small rock walled passage created by settlers at Ryddare torpet.

There were seven small cygnets in early June, but then one of them disappeared and a few weeks later a second so then there were five left. In the next montage you see them at about 4 months old, now gray and showing more independence.