UKC

Walking by various stretches of the local canal there seem to be far fewer this year than last. On the same stretch last year I'd encounter 3 or 4 pairs with various sizes of broods, this year only one pair. Was it particularly good last year or is something worrying going on?

I don't have an answer but the other day I was at the park and there were a pair of swans. They only had 3 cygnets. I don't know if that's all that were hatched or if the others were lost to predation, but it seemed unusual. 

On the other hand, I read here https://swanlifeline.uk/mute-swan that swan numbers are increasing.

Last year I saw cygnet numbers varying from 2 or 3 up to 9 in a family. The pair who had 9 managed to get all of them to almost adult size. Later in the autumn the numbers reduced but I don't know if that was death or Dad chasing them off as they got too big for their boots?

I can believe that given the numbers of families I saw last year

Up here in and around Fife, from my general observations, I think the number of Mute Swans on various lochs I’ve seen breeding is same or similar to the last couple of years. Brood size seems similar as well - up to 7 cygnets I’ve seen.

Earlier in the year, flocks of non breeding mute swans I thought were huge to what I ever recall in the past (though before taking up bird watching I really wasn’t paying that much attention). Flocks on the likes of Loch Leven were up to 40 or maybe more at times this year, 20 or so on another loch.

Subjective, but they are doing well here (or did last year to have so many non breeding about earlier in the year).

I have observed the aggression when the male decides it’s time for the youngsters to move on. On the larger lochs that just means to a different area of the loch, but on the smaller ones it is elsewhere and I assume that was part of the large flocks of non breeding swans seen earlier in the year.

It was pointed out to me last year that some lochs have high predation rates. Loch of Kinnordy I was told was one where it was lucky if any of the cygnets survive some years. Saw that with one pair there last year; they lost all but one cygnet to predation.

Last year I saw a big scrap between two males when the two families seemed to infringe each others' territory. The cygnets all milled about in confusion and the males got up onto the bank. I thought at one point one of them was holding the other underwater. In the autumn/winter the swans all seem to congregate in certain fields near the canal. It can be a little eerie to see dozens of them looming out of the mist, wondering what they're up to.

They can do from my experience. One of the fights I witnessed, which went on for five minutes or so, one of the swans’ head was being held under the water repeatedly. Fortunately it was strong enough to keep surfacing. It was brutal and all one sided.

Came across this swan last year. Don’t know what had happened, but it was being very aggressive to birdwatchers. Luckily I was in a hide though it still came right up to the hide and then along it’s full length hissing away.

Got a tip from a warden recently - she carries suet pellets when walking on known aggressive swan tracks. Indeed it was to the test when a protective male mute swan was not going to let me passed standing full height, hissing and moving in front of me. She threw suet pellets down, and once the male was eating we both were able to quietly walk past just two feet away. 

I live near the Thames in Reading; most years I see two or three swans' nests, two last year, but I've seen no nests and no cygnets this year.  But the goslings are doing well.

There are geese up here (I saw some yesterday flying over the Lune estuary) but I never seem to see any goslings. Earlier in the year they could be seen milling about in the same fields as the swans - mutual protection?

Our local swans had a brood but the youngsters all died.

No swans breeding on our local park pond this year because some oxygen thief shot one of the pair through the kneck with an air rifle and its mate was moved to a protected site.

For years we have watched them nest and raise their young but not this year.