THE kids are growing up, but they are still a headline act in Bathurst’s Machattie Park.
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When a pair of black swans hatched a trio of cygnets last November, they became a local hit.
They might have only been small balls of white fluff back then, but these days they are more like teenagers leading mum and dad on a merry dance around Lake Spencer which they call home.
While the cygnets may have left the nest, according to Robert Wootton from Bathurst Regional Council’s parks staff, they aren’t venturing too far from home.
“They are still as popular as ever with the general public,” Mr Wootton said yesterday.
“The three of them spend most of their time on the water these days and are rapidly heading towards adulthood. However, the doting parents are never far away keeping a watchful eye on them.”
Mr Wootton said as the cygnets grow, their colours are changing to a mottled grey colour.
“And their red beaks are just starting to show,” he said. “When they were little they didn’t have much of a neck, but that’s all changing too now and they are looking more and more like swans.
“People love to come down and give them a feed, and bread’s alright to give them so long as you throw it in the water. They don’t mind lettuce, cabbage or some spinach either.”
Mr Wootton said the swans originally hatched four eggs.
“Unfortunately one didn’t make it, but that’s how it goes. This is not the first time we’ve had cygnets make it through to adulthood,” he said.