Look mummy! Baby Swans!

Taking the opportunity for a photo of the very domesticated 'wildlife' on the shore of Windermere, I was surprised to see quite a number of adult swans but none of the 'ugly ducklings' of our childhood stories.

Those of you who are not in the UK might not know the folk story about the ugly grey duckling who thinks nobody will love him.  He hides away from everyone, but when he emerges he finds that he has turned into a magnificent white swan and that everyone now admires him.  It turns out that he was not a duckling at all but a cygnet.

Where the Bowness cygnets are hiding is a mystery that I do not plan to dwell upon, but I was amused by the collection of birds that were around.  In between the beautiful white swans were some equally pretty white doves.  It reminded me of an event many years ago where I heard a small toddler point at a similar scene and call out

"Look mummy!  Baby swans!"

He obviously hadn't been listening to the story about the ugly duckling.