Swans at Lake Ralphine

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.

One thought on “Swans at Lake Ralphine”

  1. In 2013 they had 3 babies that were taken by predators.
    In 2014 they had 6 babies raised on a floating nest that provided protection from predators. 4 of those babies survived. One died from taking in a fish hook. Another disappeared, possibly from being taken by a predator. Two of the babies that survived had to visit the vet, one for a nematode, and one to have a fish hook removed. Those 4 babies are now a year old and flew to Spring Lake.
    In 2015, at this writing, the parents are sitting on eggs.

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