Dim swan

I visited Craiglockhart Pond for the first time today, having been meaning to go for some time. I wasn't terribly impressed by the male swan - he spent quite a lot of time attacking his own reflection in a window which he lives beside, so it can't be anything new to him.

The Craiglockhart Pond swan family has five cygnets, and there were also a pair of coots who raised a brood of cootlets and they weren't around, so I assume they've now moved on. There were also some tufted ducks which Blackford Pond no longer has. Other than that, there were blackheaded gulls, moorhens and mallards which Blackford Pond also has. There isn't an island at Craiglockhart Pond, nor are there many benches to sit on, and you can't walk all the way round it, so Blackford Pond is the clear winner, although for future reference Craiglockhart might have some baby birds that Blackford doesn't. However, Craiglockhart does have information about their birds that Blackford doesn't: the male swan is called Siegfried and he is six years old, and the female is Brighid, aged five. I also learned that Siegfried came all the way from Newcastle - I had no idea that a mute swan would travel that kind of distance, so that does something to offset his attacking his reflection.