On my last trip to Santa Rosa and Lake Ralphine I had hoped that the Swans I had observed on my trip a month earlier might have had babies, especially when they didn’t show up at the boat launch. When they didn’t show up after several hours, though, I wondered if they had actually left. However, when I walked the back side of Lake Ralphine I saw a single swan at the end of the lake closest to Spring Lake.
Since I’d always seen the swans together, I wondered if something had happened to its mate or if the mate was sitting on a nest.
So, when the swan slowly paddled away and headed for the underbrush at the end of the lake
I followed.
No nest, no baby swans, but there seemed like a lot of “necking” going on.
It seemed clear that the babies would be coming a little later.
Hopefully I’ll be back when they have cygnets.