Swan family gets two new members

Don’t count your swans before they hatch.

The Harbour Links swan family has two new members after two cygnets, or baby swans, hatched Friday, May 15. Stan and Wendy’s nest was located close to Red tee No. 6 in the Harbour Links golf course at the Longboat Key Club and Resort.

That brings the total number of the swans at the Key Club to 17.

A week before the eggs hatched, Harbour Links resident David Novak, who acts as the unofficial swan keeper, said that chances didn’t look good for the nest. Stan and Wendy had been sitting on the nest for six weeks — usually the point, according to Novak, at which if eggs haven’t hatched, they are unlikely to do so.

The nest contained four eggs; Novak is unsure about what happened to the other two eggs.

In addition, five cygnets hatched from the nest of Henry and Vickie on April 22.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected].