Ruth and I visited my parents in Drysdale (Vic) this weekend just gone, and
noticed something a little odd at the local wetland (McLeod's Waterholes).
The last time we were there was about six or seven weeks ago and we saw a
swan family - two adults and five cygnets - all small (two or three weeks
old, according to my mum) and all the same size. This weekend we saw the
swan family again - two adults and four cygnets. Three of the cygnets were
now much larger - hardly surprising since they are now around nine or ten
weeks old. However, and this is the odd part, one of the cygnets was about
half the size of the others. Can anyone shed any light on this? I assume one
explanation is that this chick is simply the "runt of the litter", but I
wouldn't have expected such a marked difference in size. Is it possible that
this cygnet was hatched later? That seems unlikely to me since there was no
evidence of either swan still sitting on a nest the last time we saw them.
Another thought was that this family had somehow "adopted" another chick,
but that also seems unlikely to me.
Thanks,
Paul Dodd
Docklands, Melbourne
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