High Drama on the river today as I witnessed one of the strongest Swan challenges for many years. A confrontation involving two more incomers, one of whom was a very aggressive male.
Contrary to some local speculation it was not the return of Penny ad Duke, but almost certainly one of her Male offspring, perhaps the same age as Sue or maybe a year older. He was certainly stronger than Slim.
His intimidation was fierce, and succeeded in pushing Slim and Sue up river for most of the day.
As dusk approached Slim and Sue left the water and managed to work their way to the top of the island nest site, where Sue promptly sat on her treasured possessions.
Slim took on a defensive posture to repel all boarders, while the male incomer strode along the riverside towards the nest site.
The tension was building and the darkness was looming, I did not think the incomer would risk walking up to the nest with the female sitting and her mate standing guard....I was wrong !
Bold as brass the incomer strode up to Slim just a foot away from the nest and eyeballed each other for about 10 minutes it was astonishing , and the first time seen in my 16 years swan observations.
The only sign of potential conflict was the constant rubbing and flicking of wings.
It ended when the incomer dropped his posture and walked calmly down to the moat.
For now it appears that Slim and Sue have defended their nest. They will have learned much from the experience and I cant wait to see what happens tomorrow ! Pics are of poor quality due to bad light and auto settings.
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