Yay!

Both swans were at the nest when I stopped at the artificial island on my way to the sanctuary this afternoon. The female didn't get up while I was there but a lady who walked past told me she'd seen at least one cygnet earlier that day so I stopped at the island again on my way home after doing the weekend shopping.

Both swans were at the nest again but this time the female wasn't sitting on the eggs and I was able to see that 3 of them had already hatched. The male stayed at the nest guarding the remaining eggs and the cygnets while the female went off for a swim. By the time she came back 10 minutes later the 4th egg had hatched and the egg closest to the middle cygnet was already showing a small hole as well. Unfortunately the female settled back on them before this one had also hatched.

My cockatiel decided yesterday evening that she was going to join in and also laid an egg. The last time she did this was in 2007 when she laid a total of 12 eggs over a period of 4 months. I removed those eggs when she eventually gave up sitting on them.

Thank you so much for the lovely comments and stars on my swan eggs blip from yesterday.