The Mute Swans with five teenage cygnets were on the gravel strip on the Long Water with four of them ...
... and the fifth was hurrying up the Serpentine to go under the bridge and join them.
I saw that the female had a ring, and when I got home I could just read it from the photograph: Orange 4DBE. But then I realised that this is the number of the female of the previous dominant pair on the Long Water. Here is a picture of her taken last year.
This year she and her usual mate had two surviving cygnets. Suddenly she has five.
There are two possibilities, both seemingly unlikely. One is that a new male with five cygnets of his own has flown in and fought, beaten and driven away the old dominant male who has left, taking his two young with him, and that the new male has taken her over.
The other is that this actually is the original dominant pair and that they have poached the three cygnets belonging to the pair that nested on the gravel. I really don't see this happening. I can recognise the old dominant male from a scar on his leg, the right one if I remember correctly, above the tarsus, caused by a dog attack a few years ago. But I haven't got close enough to do this.
Meanwhile there is a pair with three teenage cygnets on the Round Pond, which I had supposed was the pair from the nest on the gravel strip.
But they may well be from somewhere else. All the cygnets are roughly the same age and have been able to fly for several weeks.
I'm baffled. Can anyone offer a better explanation?
The male from the Italian Garden, who made an excursion on to the lake yesterday, was back with his mate. Maybe the sight of the aggressive family on the gravel strip made him realise that discretion is the better part of valour.
In other news, the number of Cormorants is at record levels, and there were 20 on the fallen poplar in the Long Water, over 20 others at Peter Pan and elsewhere on the lake, and at least 6 at the Serpentine island.
A Cormorant and a pair of Mallards at Peter Pan carefully ignored each other.
A pair of Cormorants displayed to each other at the island.
Three Shoveller drakes fed together on the Long Water.
It was a windy day, and the teenage Little Owl at the Round Pond was inside the dead tree looking out of the back entrance.
The owl at the Speke obelisk was seen outside his hole, but not by me.
Both Peregrines were on the tower.
A Grey Wagtail looked for insects in dead leaves on the edge of the Serpentine.
So did a young Moorhen.
The tatty Blue Tit in the Flower Walk looked out from a laurel bush.
There were lots of delicate little mushrooms with tall but fragile stems under a plane tree near Queen's Gate.
I don't know what they are.
The 1916 Dennis fire engine maintained by the students at Imperial College, who call her Jezebel, on one of her regular outings to the Serpentine.
Ralph, I have been keeping an eye on the swan saga over recent weeks. I have no forensic evidence but I had always thought that the original Long Water dominant male had chased off the pair who had nested on the gravel bank and, over time, the three cynets belonging to the exiled intruders had joined forces with the dominant male's current crop of cygnets. This would explain why there are now five cygnets in the gang. I think that the original dominant male has also decided to increase his territory and now controls, not only all the Long Water, but also a not insignificant area of water on the Serpentine (perhaps as much as 100 yards) on the eastern side of the bridge. It will be interestig to see if you manage a closer inspection to identify if this is the case and that the original dominant male still remains very much king of the castle.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I'm very surprised at the dominant male's attitude to another pair's cygnets. But in terms of Realpolitik, the more he has the greater his dominance.
DeleteI noticed last year that there was an orphaned cygnet from the Serpentine who tried to join the dominan male's family on the Long Water. It seemed to me that the adult swans had no objection to the stray cygnet joining the clan but it was the dominant swan's own cygnets who bullied and harrased the orphan. Maybe this years crop don't feel able/inclined to do the same.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have seen similar things and it was the young who did the harassing. However, this time the merger seems to have gone smoothly. Well, swans are individuals and one can't expect them to follow a pattern.
DeleteThis reads like a detective novel. I do hope it is our old violent friend who has just coopted more subjects for his reign of terror.
ReplyDeleteWhy would they have called her Jezebel? Is it a very evil engine prone to worshipping foreign deities?
Tinúviel
Yes, I hope so too. The old swan has many qualities, and never mind if most of them are bad.
DeleteWhile I was trying to film Jezebel in action she had an oil leak that took half an hour to fix, which is why the scenes of spraying were shot from the far side of the lake, Now aged 106, she is a hard mistress to serve.
The swan saga is like a soap opera. I love shovellers, great to see they are back. That fire engine is fantastic! Great shots as ever
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Delete