Swans on Mayo lake proved themselves heroes again this year

BACK in March and April, our mute swans had endured a series of long and brutal battles as a succession of other swans had attempted to overthrow their territory.

Why would they retreat? Why should they do so? This pair have held the local bay for many years and have brought a great number of little ones into the world during that time.

I suppose it is the same pair. They look the same. It is alleged that swans remain faithful to the same mate throughout their lives and will even remain single rather than take up with another if their first mate dies.

And we know they will defend their territory in order to live and nest in the same locality year after year if they possibly can. So, as far as I know, this pair have graced the same few hundred acres of shallow water all their adult lives, maybe for as long as 20 or 25 years.

This year they proved themselves heroes once more. After protecting their home water from insurgents they retired to the reeds along the stony shore to build a great mound of a nest. I don't know how many eggs were laid within. There should have been half a dozen at least, and maybe as many as 10. Swans don't appreciate neighbourly attention, no matter how well meaning such a thing may be. They prefer that their nursery be a private affair and that their precious babes be protected from paparazzi, kept away from inquisitive eyes.

Five cygnets were brought from the nest. Little bundles of creamy grey down, they were, with tiny voices that chimed their arrival into this world.

I would liked to say they have done well. To tell the truth, I never saw the five. A reliable friend told me they were there. The five became four when one of the babies went missing overnight. There had been no great fuss, no bloody, screaming murder on the reed rimmed shore of Lough Carra's Moore Hall Bay. There were five, and then there were four.

There are many suspects. “A pike,” I ventured. “Mink,” says my friend. “No,” said I. “The mink hereabouts have been well controlled. What with all the trapping and shooting that took place throughout the winter there can't be one left in the catchment.”

I know that to be not true, that mink are constantly on the move, on the lookout for vacant territory. As soon as one dominant animal is removed from his patch two or three younger animals move in and the situation for ground nesting birds is twice or three times as bad as it had been previously.

Half the world is at war, even with itself. What harm, then, if we were to declare a wee war of our own and be determined to rid ourselves of this black plague of an animal once and for all. There had been talk of a bounty on mink, of about €20 per head. (Per tail, actually, what with tails being much easier to detach and to store than heads.) Whatever happened to that initiative?

Four cygnets became three when another of the family disappeared in mysterious circumstances. If they have a large and ravenous pike following them around they don't stand much of a chance. Equally, if we have mink back in the area they will soon dispose of the entire brood.

As a pair of swans need raise only two offspring to adulthood in their whole lives, we have no need to worry for the local population.

But after all their work in establishing and maintaining a territory, nesting and brooding and caring for their young ones, don't they deserve something better?

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