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I dont have a reference book here, but off the top of my
head.
1, 2, 3) carrying cygnets is common when they are very
young, until they get to big, I think about 2-3 weeks or so. I monitored them at
East LBG a few years ago and I think that is right. When the swans walk on land
the cygnets fall out and have to walk. Air, I suspect not. Swans also moult
after breeding and cant fly, they rarely fly when they have
chicks.
1) they do have quite a few calls, dueting is common and
seems to be a way of pulling the birds together. I imagine the male called, but
it was really the females final decision when the chicks were
ready.
2) swans do normally vacate the position of the nest after
the chicks have hatched perhaps within only 3 days to a week, presumably for
predator avoidance. You often see them swimming along the edge of lake BG East
pond in winter with small to medium sized cygnets.
3) the cygnets walk on land I am pretty sure, rather than
carried.
Swans breed in winter, often having cygnets that are quite
old by August, so they must start about now.
great photos!
Benj
Hi
All
For
the past month or so I have been observing as often as possible a
family of
swans:
two adults and five (originally six) cygnets.
The cygnets were born in
suburban Belconnen, very unseasonably on June 7th,or possibly 6th, i missed one
day of observing.
The nest was in Pond 1 at Dunlop on the edge of
suburbia.
It is a pretty busy pond much visited by large dogs and overlooked
by houses.
During the period the female was sitting the male spent much
of its time at Pond 2 where given later events i presume the food was
better.
For those who do not know Pond 2 is about 600 metres from Pond 1
along a footpath on the western edge of Dunlop.
It is also about 500 metres
as the crow (were we to have them in Canberra) flies.
During there first
two weeks i was surprised to see the cygnets riding on the back of either
parent.
On one occassion i saw one parent with four on board
and on another three on
each parent.
They travelled both tidily and untidilly.
An untidy ride;
four (i think) up; but maybe only two.
A tidy ride.
This was
the last occasion on which i observed the behaviour about five weeks
ago.
This gives rise to my first group of questions:
(i) is this
carrying a common practice ?
(ii) do they do it on land and water or merely
water ?
(iii) I guess for completeness i should have included air ? in
(ii).
When the cygnets were one to three days old I photographed them at
Pond 1 in poor light at about 08:30.
The day subsequently cleared and I
returned about 11:00 only to find that the whole family had decamped
and travelled to pond 2 which they have not left since.
To date
only one cygnet has been lost (cat? fox? cold? motor cycle? trodden on
by cow?).
My second group of questions:
(i) what level of
communication is necessary between the adults to carry
out this change of location
?.
The complexity of language would seem to me to be
far greater than
one would normally assosciate with birds.
(ii) Do swans normally
switch locations shortly after hatching ?
(iii) were the cygnets carried or
did they walk ?
i have yet to see one walk and
5 weeks have passed.
When Joe Barr mentioned (mid-May) on the chat line
that the bird was sitting,
he drew no response. This surprised me.
Hence
my third question:
How unusual are cygnets in June in
Canberra?
roger
curnow.
For those who like swan photos a few of the thosand i have taken
in the last eight weeks can be seen for a short while at:
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