SPRING is now official, with breeding swans returning to Hyde Park and showing off six fuzz-headed cygnets.

No swans bred in Hyde Park in 2020. The reason is unknown but that was a bad year for water quality and a botulism outbreak killed an ibis and more than 50 ducks.

Parkgoers were concerned there’d be no babies again this year as only a solitary swan had been spotted, until recent days when a pair swam out together and unveiled their six cygnets.  More new life was also seen in the park with some long-awaited long-necked turtle hatchlings waddling out of their nests. 

The eggs were laid last November and have a varied incubation period depending on the temperature. Two nests hatched in the past few weeks, with a third nest of yet-to-hatch eggs north of the lakes fenced off and being monitored for a UWA study. 

by DAVID BELL