We’ve been seeing some young mute swans at the salt marsh for a while now. I had read some mentions of a trio of immature mute swans that people were seeing up in Santa Barbara, and it was just a few days later that I saw two of them, also immatures, down in the Carp salt marsh. I assumed they were the same birds, and that the three of them have been hanging around in various combinations ever since.
Lately I’ve been seeing a single mute swan, now in the stunning all-white adult plumage, in either the Franklin Creek or Santa Monica Creek channels at the marsh. Whenever I’m there with William and we see the swan he insists on my snapping a photo with my phone, so I have this to share: a shot of William watching the swan in the Franklin Creek Channel last weekend:
This past Friday I was visiting UCSB as part of the incoming-freshmen-and-parents orientation (because Julia will be starting there in the fall), and as we were walking around near the dorms (which I note are in a more beautiful setting than anywhere I’ve ever lived), we spotted two mute swans in the campus lagoon. Here’s the (slightly fuzzy) shot I took:
I wonder if these are the other two of that original trio of siblings.