In the Dark

Some time ago, back in July, I posted about the sad demise of one of the beautiful swans that had been nesting at the canal harbour in Maynooth. I used to walk along the towpath to work sometimes, but currently there is work being done to renovate the canal bank so I have got out of the habit of walking along there. A couple of days ago, however, a colleague sent me a photograph which reminded me to post an update:

You will see that there are two swans once again. In fact there are three, as I shall explain.

First, contrary to what I said in my previous post, it was the male swan (cob) that died of an infection. The female swan (pen) was also very ill, and was taken aware to be nursed back to health by the team at Kildare Wildlife Rescue hence her temporary disappearance. She recovered, and was returned to the canal. However, a new pair of young swans – shown in the picture – moved in on the little island where the previous pair used to nest and drove off older pen. I’m told there wasn’t exactly a peaceful handover; it was more of a forcible eviction. The new swans will no doubt nest on the island, and perhaps raise cygnets next year, while the older one is usually to be found further along the canal, near the Mullen Bridge, apparently healthy but on her own.

This entry was posted on October 30, 2024 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Maynooth with tags Maynooth, Royal Canal, swan, Swans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.