Yes, the village swans have done it again, they’ve walked their cygnets through the village to the canal when they were about a week old. However, this year they’ve caused even more consternation and fun because another pair C181 & CB33 took over the territory on the same day and so many people wrongly assumed that all six cygnets had been lost. However, we were able to put anxious villagers at ease, as I had earlier supervised their walk from the Ring O’Bells Car Park to the canal, via the Stile Footpath and Quarry Lane. It was really quite easy this year, as the pen, C175 knew exactly where she was going, and with the help of some young pupils, I was able to guide them safely through the traffic to the canal near Quarry Bridge.

They had caused chaos along Little Heath Road by holding up the traffic between 6.00 and 7.00 am and several traffic queues had occurred. Six cygnets were born on 6th May and one died or was taken before their adventurous journey began. Subsequently another went missing after some days on the canal. Happily, the remaining four cygnets appear strong and healthy, as they swim on the canal between Christleton and Waverton Bridge. The second pair at The Pit had tried to nest in the area in the last two years: in 2000 at Manor Farm in Littleton, and last year at Manor Farm in Christleton. They were very poor parents, abandoning their two cygnets at the nest site each day whilst they flew off to the river. The pen from this pair C181 is the sister of C175 and daughter of our cob C852 (VZN). He bred on the canal near Rowan Park with another female in 1986, and his instinct seems to be to want to take his family from the Pit to the Canal each year. He couldn’t last year as I had to rescue him, having seen him crash land onto the road in Littleton, and he spent five weeks at The RSPCA Centre in Nantwich. When he returned he was in moult and therefore safer at The Pit, until he gained new flight feathers later in the season. All swans moult between June and August, and become flightless. This is the reason that we have a build up of immature and unpaired adults at the Groves in Chester during the summer months. There are currently 41 swans there and this will continue to build up during the next few weeks. When they grow their new flight feathers they will start to fly around again, so we should see the Christleton Pit adults with their surviving cygnets back at The Pit around the end of September or early October. Let’s hope that the new pair don’t lay any eggs and have any late cygnets, because there will surely be a battle royal when the original pair return to their old breeding territory. Watch this space!

David Cummings