COUNTRYMAN

I consider myself fortunate to have access to a friend’s small private lake, which has remained largely unchanged for many years.

Surrounded by mixed woodland, it provides a tranquil setting and the opportunity to observe an unspoiled stillwater habitat throughout the seasons.

For many years, mute swans have occupied a small island, maintaining a family tradition by rebuilding their untidy nest on the exact spot each spring.

Though the popular idea of swans mating for life has been disproved, the current occupants have certainly been together, successfully raising cygnets, for several years.

While my visits are not tied to any routine, I have become used to their annual programme, which has in the past included a move, with their cygnets, to a larger lake a mile or so away during the cold winter months.

Unusually, they left one behind last winter, which, though the only swan on the water, appeared to be quite happy in the noisy company of the resident coots, moorhens and assorted ducks.

I happened to be present at the lake when the parents returned in early spring, and was surprised by the aggression shown in driving their own youngster away.

Such behaviour is, however, quite normal, and second year cygnets usually leave to join flocks of juveniles, staying for two or three years before pairing up and departing to seek their own territory.

With an estimated 30,000 mute swans in Britain, that is not necessarily an easy task, as breeding pairs prefer to have a nest site and productive feeding very much to themselves.

Having re-established ownership of the lake, the pair quickly rebuilt their nest and produced seven eggs, the smaller pen (female) carrying out the incubation, with the cob assuming his main duty as fearless protector of his mate and their eggs.

Very defensive, occasionally extremely aggressive, he interposed himself between any potential intruder and nest, hissing, arching his neck and expanding his wings to appear as big as possible.

In spite of their name, the species is not at all mute, and the cob in particular has a range of calls, including barks and grunts.

Though I never approached too closely, he was always aware of my presence even when “under cover”, and I was, at no stage, prepared to test the truth of stories relating the damage caused by a blow from a swan’s wing!

About a month later, I found that four cygnets had hatched, small, grey-fluffed and with black beaks, colours they retain while young, the familiar orange beak only developing in the second year.

They soon took to the water, often sailing in perfect line astern as they learned proper swanlike behaviour from their attentive parents.

Just occasionally, they were seen to pop out of the water into the safety and comfort of the adult’s wings, but this was discouraged as their size increased.

Unfortunately, the remaining three eggs never hatched, eventually being dislodged from the nest into the surrounding herbage. The cygnets are now approaching full size, having fed well on the plentiful weed and insect life, and it will be interesting to see whether they all accompany their parents to the other lake with the onset of winter.

Though still strictly wild, mute swans have long been encouraged to become semi-domesticated, being treated, in practice, as just another food source, and swanneries were established by the noble estates to provide extravagant dishes for large medieval banquets.

Such ownership of swans led to their being marked on bills or feet, each identifying mark being registered with the Crown. All unmarked birds then became the property of the Crown, though the monarch now shares the privilege with the Vintners’ and Dyers’ Companies, who join the Queen’s Swan Marker in the “upping” ceremonies on the Thames each year.

Some monasteries also maintained their own swannery, and there is an historic connection via The Bishops Palace at Wells Cathedral, where swans were trained to pull a bell string to ask for food.

Nowadays, very few would consider eating these graceful birds, and the tradition of feeding the swans on the local lake or river has become an enjoyable part of any child’s upbringing.

This early and easy contact is just part of the comfortable association we have with swans, and has led to their holding a special place in our affections.