SWANNERY

On our last day in England, we drove to Heathrow Airport to stay overnight so we didn't have to dash like crazy people to get to the airport in time.
We drove along the south coast going from west to east and I was checking the map for interesting sights when I saw "The Swannery" ... it's been in the current location since the 1300s and the over 600 swans have a great place to call home. You can walk freely along the paths and walk really close to the nests for good photos ... I only got hissed at one time!


Here's one of the first nests we saw ... you can just see two cygnets sticking out from underneath mum ... Most of the swans were still waiting for eggs to hatch but we saw two who had little ones already.



Here we have two cobs confronting each other. It didn't get nasty .. just a lot of wings flapping and attempts to make themselves look much larger ... it was over in a matter of a couple of minutes but it was quite impressive while it lasted.


This is a good view of the main part of the swannery ... there are some 'training pens' for parents to take their young to get them used to the water, etc. You can see how close they all are to each other and they get along great apparently ... even put up with visitors walking amongst them.