Bart Bear's Blog

You can always see swans on Lake Burley Griffin. Here's a family of a mum and four bubs that I saw last weekend. Overseas visitors get a surprise when they first see Australian swans. Ours are black, most of the overseas ones are white. Actually, the little swans, called cygnets, start out being a pale grey colour and get their black feathers as they get older. The adult ones are the only completely black swans in the world (if you don't count the red beak). You can see them just about anywhere in Australia where there is water. I didn't have to go looking for this lot. I just sat on a tree stump near the edge of the lake and they came to me. They were hoping that I would feed them something. I can understand that because their usual food is algae and water weeds. It is not a good idea to feed them other things though. Lots of our local swans get sick because people feed them bread, chips, bits of sausage roll and other bits of picnic food. These guys were disappointed but small bears know how important it is to look after our wildlife.

Labels: birds, Canberra