A Dog May Look At A Queen's Swan

We intended to walk to Ashley Pit in search of the goosanders that have been seen there recently but it started to rain so we ducked into the Bittern Hide. I got some nice shots of a jay and of a wood mouse. Lucky mouse. The first time I went into this hide, quite a few years ago, I got shots of a jay catching and devouring a mouse.

Afterwards Ollie dog and I were on the bank of Seventy Acres Lake shooting a flock of peewits when a pair of swans and three fully grown cygnets squeaking like nestlings approached. Ollie was just looking at them but he hissed at her threateningly. She recoiled in fear.

My mother used to tell the story of how her parents came by a dead swan, I don't know how, and cooked it to feed their big family of nine children. Knowing that all unmarked swans belong to the Crown the children were instructed to refer to it as 'the biped'. :)