Are all swans birds of a feather? Afraid not

AT this time of year, swans get involved in fights. Worse still, young swans can be attacked by their fathers.

A distressed caller wanted me to restore order on a local pond, in a UN-style peace-keeping mission, and send the offending daddy for trial to The Hague. Such intervention, alas, isn’t on. An injured bird can be taken into custody for veterinary treatment. Otherwise capturing mute swans, a protected species, is forbidden by the 1976 Wildlife Act. But why do swans fight? These big vegetarian birds start laying from mid March. There can be up to nine eggs in a nest but the average is seven. I once saw 12. When the clutch is completed the female, known as the ‘pen’, sits for about 36 days, eating almost nothing. Her mate, the ‘cob’, patrols the territory, keeping other swans out and threatening any animal or person approaching the nest.

Swans make excellent parents, chaperoning their cygnets attentively. It will be late autumn before the young can fly. They don’t leave the territory immediately, but linger on at home. So much aquatic vegetation is eaten that only a well endowed location can support a family through the winter. On territories where food becomes scarce, parents and young fly together to the nearest swan-flock, known as a ‘herd’.