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January 17, 2008
Bald Eagle on Whitin Pond
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On Jan. 17, 2008 at around 8:00 a.m., we saw a Bald Eagle fly past one of our windows facing Whitin Pond. We were able to spot the eagle in a tree on one of the two small islands on the pond. Crows do not like eagles or hawks, so they often fly and land near them, making a lot of noise. That was the case this time, so it made it easy to find out where the eagle had landed by watching the crows. The eagle stayed in the tree about 30 minutes, then flew in a westerly direction up the Mumford River.
July 29, 2007
Rare Visit
So far this summer we have had only one visit from our beautiful white feathered friends, the Great Egrets. On July 29th at 9:15 a.m. one egret flew into a tree on the island in the pond, followed one at a time by three more! After staying in the trees awhile, they flew down to what we refer to as the "spa", an area at the end of the island where water birds of all kind like to bathe! After about an hour, they all flew away together and we have'nt spotted any egrets since, but we are always watching. We see them most often in late August and September. For more pictures of the Great Egrets, please go to the Egret page.
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June 8, 2007
Baby Canadian Geese have arrived
We are happy to announce that there are four more babies on Whitin Pond !!! A pair of Canadian geese proudly displayed their four goslins on a small area of land by our house. They are a fuzzy yellow-green and very energetic!! They are fast on land and water. The male swan was not too happy to see the family, as he considers them a threat because they eat the same type of food, so he chased them around for awhile, but the geese escaped without any harm.
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.We took some pictures of the baby swans (cygnets) and the mom and dad in the afternoon to keep up on their progress. They stayed for a short visit and then went out into the vegetation to feed. Soon after the adults swans became alarmed and started flapping their wings and we heard some odd sounds. We saw two baby swans swimming around in a circle very fast. It looked like the adult swans were trying to stomp on something. We realized that one of the baby swans was being taken down by a large snapping turtle, and of course all we could do was helplessly watched this sad event. The swans soon swam off with the two remaining babies and stayed on land for about a half an hour before swimming away as a family of four. The snapping turtle stayed in the area for sometime, as we could see his head arise from the water from time to time. Nature is most often beautiful, but sometimes harsh, even on Whitin Pond.
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May 17, 2007
Baby Swans Are Here
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The baby swans are out with mom and dad taking short swims several times a day. Each day they will swim farther from the nest. Eventually the whole pond will be their playground !!!
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May 15, 2007
This morning we discovered three baby swans (cygnets) in the nest! Although we have only seen three fuzzy little heads bobbing up and down, there certainly could be more. By the end of the week they should be swimming with their parents on the pond. They will go back to the nest several times during the day and at night to rest. After a couple of weeks they will abandon the nest for good. Enjoy the new additions to Whitin Pond !!!
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April 16, 2007
Swans Reinforcing Their Nest
They worked all day to save their nest
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On Monday April 16th, the heavy rains threatened the swans nest. The nest was built on the edge of a small island on Whitin Pond. The nest eventually bacame surrounded by rushing high waters. The swans worked desperately throughout the whole day reinforcing their nest with twigs and other materials. They used their bills to do all of this hard work. As the darkness of night came, they had stopped their re-building and the female swan sat on the nest with the male swan close by. Tuesday morning, April 18, we were happy to see the water had started to receded on the island and the female was still on the nest. The swans hard work saved their nest from the treacherous high waters and the storm.
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April 7, 2007
This pair of swans have been here for two years. They started building this years nest close to where they built it last year. We noticed them dragging weeds and sticks around the area on March 28th, and they haven't stopped since. The nest is always very large and close to the waters edge. The female swan has been spending about ninety-five percent of her time sitting on the nest, only getting into the water two of three brief periods a day. She has been doing this for eight or nine days, so we think the eggs may have been layed . We are anticipating a hatching around May13th - May 20th. As time goes by she will leave the nest less and less. The male swan, we call PeeWee, patrols the Whitin pond, eating and watching for any invaders. These mostly consist of other swans and Canadian geese, which he will not stand for, and chases them away. The Canadian geese are very stubborn, and it can take PeeWee many chases before they leave or hide from him ! PeeWee is more aggresive this year in defense of his family than last year. We are looking forward to an exciting year with the swans and their new cygnets !