Black Swans

[MullumMiss]

Last week we were visiting relatives up at the Gold Coast, QLD Aus.  From their 12th floor apartment they showed us a pair of Black Swans taking turns sitting on their eggs.  
I looked up and found this article.

https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/black-swan/

Here are my photos.  Apparently the nesting has become a topic on FB and in the time we were there, many walkers stopped to check on them.  

[GeordieGirl]

Thank you for sharing this. They are beautiful and they certainly don't seem in the least bit concerned about humans, do they, nesting out in the open like that.

 

The Black Swan is the official emblem of WA.  I have only ever seen one colony of White Swans in WA about 100kms East of Perth.

 

I spent a reasonable proportion of my childhood living on a houseboat in England and I would watch the swans, which were white ones, swimming up and down the river. They are very family oriented and in spring after the babies were hatched and grown a little, they would swim in single file, with dad at the front, babies in the middle and mum bringing up the rear.  They would do this until the babies were mature and had grown most of their adult feathers.

 

Swans in England are owned by the Royal Family and as such is a protected species.