A Few More Photos from our trip to Abbotsbury

We went to the swannery on Friday. If you are ever in Dorset in May or early June it it well worth visiting the Swannery. It is a wonderful sight to see so many swans all nesting so close to each other. I was also luck enough to see my first Reed warbler.

Today I Saw a Cygnet Hatch!

Hello Mama
It was exhausting getting out of the shell!
Just out
You can see the crack in the egg.

We Visited the Swannery at Abbotsbury today and were luck enough to watch a cygnet hatch The photos came up in the wrong order but you can see the progress which took place over a period of about 20 minutes.

Abbotsbury Swannery conserves the only managed colony of nesting Mute swans in the world.Mute Swans are usually fiercely territorial by nature and it is therefore rare to see so many nesting swans in such close proximity to each other.but there are up to 150 pairs on a 2acre nesting site.There are often more than 600 adult swans on the site. In England the crown claims ownership of Mute swans with only three exceptions one of which is Abbotsbury. In1543 the Strangways family was given the right to claim ownership of all the nesting swans on the site and the family still own the swannery today,

Abbotsbury Sub tropical gardens

After we had visited the swannery, we drove on a little way to see the Sub Tropical gardens . We had not expected them to be so big and we spent several hours wandering around. At one point we climbed the steep hill for views of the Jurassic coast, and in the distance we could make out the swans. It was very warm so it was good to get in the shade for a bit. The gardens were worth visiting and they do a very nice cream tea in the colonial tea house. The pheasnts seemed to know when they might find some crumbs and turned up to see what we had left.

The Golden Pheasants were wandering around the gardens
From the viewpoint we could see the swannery

Plenty of Lambs about

Arum Lily
Rhododendrum in the shade
Bee on Allium

Little bridge
Lily and below green veined white butterfly

The Abbotsbury Swannery

Abbotsbury Swannery conserves the only manged colony of nesting Mute swans in the world.Mute Swans are usually fiercely territorial by nature and it is therefore rare to see so many nesting swans in such close proximity to each other.but there are up to 150 pairs on a 2acre nesting site.There are often more than 600 adult swans on the site. In England the crown claims ownership of Mute swans with only three exceptions one of which is Abbotsbury. In1543 the Strangways family was given the right to claim ownership of all the nesting swans on the site and the family still own the swannery today,

Cygnets in a cosy bed.
New born cygnets and swans eggs
Riding a white swan.
feeding time for the non breeding swans

Cygnets