Thankfully today dawned bright and sunny so we drove back to Abbotsbury to visit The Swannery. Abbotsbury is home to the only managed free-flying mute swan colony in the world and visitors can walk among the nesting birds and twice daily see them being fed.
In the colony there is one Hooper Swan (identified by its yellow beak) which I believe we were told had been rescued by the Swannery.
During the summer holidays Wessex Bird of Prey Rescue are displaying some of their birds at The Swannery and we listened to an interesting talk about the birds they have rescued and about birds of prey that live in and around the Abbotsbury estate.
When we visited The Swannery, our ticket also allowed us to visit Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens. Set in 30 acres of woodland valley the subtropical gardens' macro climate enables many exotic and rare species from all over the world to thrive. It was nice to wander around the gardens looking at all the beautiful plants and the majority of flowering varieties were doing very well considering the extremely dry summer we've had.
In 2015, to mark the 250th anniversary of the gardens, a 36 metre long "Burma Rope Bridge" was installed across the Jurassic Pond. It is one of the longest rope bridges in the UK and cost £100,000 to build.
We felt we should cross the swinging bridge which we found to be very bouncy .... especially when someone decided to jump up and down on it!!!
The varieties of Hydrangea in the Hydrangea walk were beautiful and the different colours stunning.
We were disappointed not to see any Magnolia on the very steep uphill Magnolia Walk...
... but the view from the top over Chesil Beach and The Fleet where we had walked the previous day was spectacular.
The seat at the top of the walk was a welcome find.
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