The undergardener planned a lovely day out for my birthday yesterday, in Dorset. We took a bit longer getting to our favourite fish restaurant in West Bay, Dorset, due to the main road being closed, which meant a long diversion, but made it eventually. West Bay is where the recent TV series Broadchurch was filmed with its spectacular red sandstone cliffs.
West Bay scallops.
My starter was West Bay hand dived scallops on a pea puree -absolutely delicious! Food miles travelled, about 200yds!
Oven Roasted Hake with Samphire
My main was Roasted Hake (again, caught locally) with Samphire and 2 huge prawns and a few sauted potatoes. Delicious!
Lemon posset.
We don’t normally have 3 courses, but decided that birthdays only come once a year! Mine was a lemon posset with shortbread biscuit, strawberry and a mixed chocolate wedge. I decided that I would walk off the extra calories in the afternoon! A truly delicious lunch.
Abbotsbury Swannery
After lunch we made our way to Abbotsbury Swannery. Apparently it is the only place in the world where you can walk through nesting mute swans.
Nesting swans.
The swans are so used to us humans, that they just ignore us. The nests are just at the side of the path, no telephoto was needed.
Cygnets.
There were cygnets everywhere, all at different stages of development. There is an egg here which looks as though someone it trying to break out into the big wide world.
Swans on the Fleet lagoon.
The Fleet lagoon is formed by the natural sandbar called Chesil Beach which is part of the Jurassic Coast. The water here isn’t salt water, even though the sea, or English Channel is just over the sandbar and is open to the sea at the far end. Chesil Beach is considered one of the natural wonders of the world. They say that they have about 400 swans here.
Coot chick.
There were lots of other birds with their chicks, Moorhen, Coot and Pheasants, this is a Coot chick, but just look at the size of the feet! They seem to have adult sized feet on a youngsters body!
Sleepy swan.
This swan was obviously so tired, like you are when you have 6 children! She kept opening her eyes each time there was movement under her wing, we managed to catch a glimpse of about 6 cygnets, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to photograph them.
Disposing of the egg shell.
When we walked past later, she was eating one of the egg shells, maybe a cygnet had hatched while we were away.
Cygnet pen.
Sometimes cygnets get separated from their parents, so are put into a holding pen while they grow, usually with a pair of swans that will adopt them into their own brood.
Waiting for a meal.
The nearer it got to 4pm, feeding time, more and more swans started gathering on the Fleet Lagoon. Theses swans are all free to go if they wish, they don’t have their wings clipped, but they know that food comes each day at 12 o’clock and 4 pm.
Feeding time, almost.
As the minutes ticked by, more and more swans arrived and made more and more noise.
Swanherd.
As soon as the swans saw the Swanherd arrive with their food, pandemonium broke out. The food is thrown into the water for the swans to up-end and find it, which is their natural way of feeding.
Helping themselves.
Some though, decided that they would get more by helping themselves!
Feeding time.
We had a wonderful day out, it was good to come to the Swannery again, the swans are so good timing their young for my birthday. A big thank you to the undergardener for arranging a super day out, I came home very weary, but very, very happy!
What a lovely way to spend your birthday!
How fascinating to be able to walk among the swans and to see them in all stages.
Thanks for sharing.
It was a really lovely day Sharon, we enjoyed it so much and the weather was kind to us too, which made such a difference as it can be very cold by the sea. Normally I wouldn’t go near a swan’s nest while they have cygnets just hatching, as they can be very aggressive, but no problems with these as they are so used to humans.
What a wonderful day out — a delicious meal (I love fish and local makes it even better) and a walk with swans. That under-gardener is a smart fellow.
It was wonderful, thank you Alison. I have always been very fond of fish and have never lived very far from the sea, so have always been ready to choose it on a menu. The undergardener certainly picked a good day out for both of us!
That looks like a truly wonderful day. Really delicious food, and I´ve never so many swans in one place before.
It was Gitte, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is the only place where I have seen such a great number of swans, they usually don’t like another pair to be so close at nesting time.
What an amazing amount of swans and those wee cygnets are ever so cute. I had no idea that they’d be adopted by another pair, you learn something new each day.
A belated Happy Birthday Pauline and thank you for sharing your birthday treat with us. Much appreciated.
It was a pleasure to share it with you Angie, such a wonderful place should be more well known as I think it is quite unique. The group of cygnets were in a pen with an adult pair and they all looked happy together, maybe they can’t count and don’t notice an extra one or two!
so glad you had lovely day and what a wonderful meal … !
Thanks Rosemarie, it was wonderful and the meal was delicious! I think I walked all the calories off in the afternoon, I hope I did anyway!
That would be my perfect day too Pauline. Love the cygnets and my mouth is watering just looking at the food.
A belated Happy Birthday.
Thanks Jessica, it was a super day! Birthday celebrations are continuing today with the family down from Bristol!
Happy Birthday to you dear Pauline. I’m drooling over the pictures from your meal, but even more am fascinated by the concept of a swannery. This just looks like too much fun!
Thank you Susie, you’re very kind! The swannery is quite unique in that all the swans are happy together, usually they don’t like any other swans in their territory. These must be the very distant relatives of the ones that used to live here when the monastry was in existance. The monks used to eat them on feast days!! Thank goodness that doesn’t happen any more, but the swans have stayed and multiplied, they are free to leave if they want to, but I think if I was being fed twice a day, I’d stay around for a while!
Oh my. I can see why food blogs and cooking shows are so popular. That looks absolutely delicious and perfect for a visit to the coast. Happy birthday!
The swans are something. Are the nesting swans free to come and go as well? Seems like a tough crowd to raise a family amongst but I suppose they can take care of themselves well enough. Love the feet on that coot!
The food was wonderful Frank, the chef is a master of his art, as well as tasting fantastic, it was a feast for the eyes as well.
Yes, the nesting swans are free to come and go as they like, basically they are wild swans, but obviously while they have cygnets, they stay put. I couldn’t help but laugh at the coots feet, they seemed far too big for a young bird!
Happy belated birthday! And….WOW….what a beautiful birthday! Lovely that you were wined and dined and then had the privilege of seeing all those beautiful swans…..sighs….I did enjoy the treat….gorgeous pics, wish I had been there!!!xxx
Thanks Dina, it was a super birthday, carrying on yesterday with our daughter and family from Bristol!
The swans were amazing, so many of them, and the cygnets so cute and fluffy. I thought you would like them!
Cute coot chick! Your meal looked scrumptious, and the visit with all the swans had to be incredible. Belated Happy Birthday! I am amazed the swans were so tame. Swans I have known were rather aggressive.
The Coot chick looked so comical with its huge feet Deb, it will have to grow into them! Swans are aggressive normally, especially when they have their young, but these have become tame over the years, as they know that no-one is going to hurt either them or their young. You never normally see so many nesting together in the one area either.
Hi Pauline,
What a wonderful birthday celebration! Your dinner looked fantastic. There is nothing like truly fresh fish…
Swans are so amazing….I love how they’re monogamous. And, all those sweet babies! How do you manage to not pick them up….
I don’t think Swans are native to the US….we have geese……and no one wants to visit those chasing, biting buggers!
Dinner was really delicious Sally, one of the benefits of living near the coast, the food is so fresh, just caught that morning!
Swans are monogamous normally, but a couple of years ago, the swans here at Abbotsbury caused quite a stir, when one of the females ousted another female off her nest, mated with the male ( who just stood there and didn’t chase her away) laid her own eggs among the others already there, and then hatched out all 13 eggs! Female no 1 just walked up and down looking really miserable. This was on our national TV and all the wildlife experts arrived to see this for themselves as it had never been known before!
What a hussy! 😉
Absolutely, although I blame the male!
Oh yummy yummy – I would be very happy with those choices too. We didn’t have anything nearly as nice for the Golfer’s birthday meal on the 6th! And the swannery! I have visited Abbotsbury a long long time ago but remember spending so long in the gardens that we missed the swans 🙁 That needs to be rectified – lovely to see your pictures in the meantime
The meal was fantastic Cathy, we both thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a toss up whether to visit the garden or the swannery, the swans won as we had visited the garden fairly recently when we had visitors. Its wonderful to see so many free flying swans in one area and of course the cygnets are so adorable!
Oh a belated Happy Birthday to you dear Pauline! I’m glad to read that your special day was filled with fun and good food too. I hope that the year ahead treats you most kindly.
Thank you so much Anna, it really was a wonderful day and we both enjoyed it all. We just have to wait another three weeks until we see the oncologist, when we hope she will have good news for us. Already the side effects of the treatment have decreased and hubby is almost back to normal, thank goodness.