We went for a quiet walk this evening in Abingdon and saw some swans and cygnets.
A little further along were some ducklings with mum and dad not in sight.
A cygnet became the hero of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy story Ugly Duckling. It was seen by the other birds and animals on the farm as an ugly little creature and suffered abuse as a result.
Then at the end of the story the duckling is shocked when the beautiful swans welcome and accept him, only to realize by looking at his reflection in the water that he had been, not a duckling, but a swan all this time.
Reading the Abingdon Taxi driver’s column in the Abingdon Herald this week, cygnets have suffered at the hands of humans who took pot shots at them with air guns.
The ducklings will eventually find their dad and mum. Dad has started to moult and loose his fine colours.
Ducklings and Cygnets
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