Swans

Happened upon this picture, and it always takes my breath away. I marvel at how effortlessly they glide around our ponds here, leaving a lovely wake. But when they leave the water to walk around, or cross the road to visit another pond, they are a clumsy mass of waddling bird. Sort of like a teenage boy who steps off his skateboard.

We have two resident swans, both female. Every spring they build a nest by going into someone's yard and rounding up their mulch. the first year we moved here, in "02, the nest was as big as a Volkswagon. They lay a bunch of big eggs, over a dozen,  They take turns sitting on the nest for about a month. then lose interest. There must not have had sex ed in swan school. Over the years they have become less enthusiastic about this next building business, but they still lay the eggs in great quantities. You can almost hear them talking, something like "Why do we do this every year? Whose idea is it? Next year, the one who brings it up has to do the work. It's boring, I tell you." This life lesson tells us not to trust hormones. Just enjoy being beautiful.