Today at lunch time I parked up alongside a small river, only about ten feet wide, very thick rushes alongside the banks, and the water surface covered in small lilies. I'd been there only a few minutes when a family of swans came up...pen, a really big cob and five well grown youngsters, looking for any handouts...from the other direction came a lone cob and approached the family group. The big cob took off after this infiltrator and good old scrap started, both birds really out to do some damage to each other....after a good few minutes the fight went off into the rushes, and chaos ensued, with rushes shaking and water spraying everywhere, obviously a right royal punch up was going on.
A short while later and the big cob came out, shook himself, gathered up his family and off they went, but no signs of the other adult...so I walked over to take a look, just to make sure he was ok and not in too much of a state.
I could'nt believe what I found...the infiltrator was floating dead in the water, with what looked like a broken neck and his face covered in blood. I couldn't reach him, so there he had to stay, food for the local rats...what a sad end for a magnificent creature.
I've seen swans fight before over females and/or territitorial rights, but I've never before seen one swan kill another.
Never did finish my lunch, it sort of put me off eating....
Rich