Winter Swans

I caved.

I broke my own (number one) rule. That is: not to feed the wild-life  ...but this is Fred and William. 

(Broken rule #2: Don't name the wildlife...just in case you're a person who likes to keep track of things.)

Last year, Fred and William built a nest and laid a beautiful green egg. It was early Spring but we had frazil ice left over from the winter and then, about 3 days of continual rain adding to the slushy mess.

These circumstances forced the river to flood its banks more aggressively than it normally does.

(Frazil ice looks like pieces of broken glass and slush. The problem is, it doesn't let water flow very efficiently and it causes bottle-necks and backs water (that isn't frozen) up.)

A river full of frazil ice is like a river full of slush

Fred and Williams' nest and single egg, got carried away with the icy flood waters. I observed them morn for about 2 days. It was sad as they kept trying to understand what happened to the area where their nest once was.

Currently, we have had 2 solid months of really cold weather. We've experienced subzero temperatures, that have routinely hit double digits. As a result we've  also lost a lot of our open water to ice because the water has frozen. 

When I saw Fred and William today, I decided to exercise some compassion and left out a little bit of corn for them on the ice.

I took this photo with a Nikon S700 camera.

I welcome your comments and I invite you to follow me on my journey...I break my own rules from time to time.

~ Rebecca Ryan ;)