On 'our' River, Monday, 19Th. May. A Pair Of Swans

[Tilly2]

and nine cygnets.

Monday, 26th. May. A pair of swans and six cygnets.

Where have they gone? What eats cygnets?

[Svejk]

Romanians

[Svejk]

pike

[Tilly2]

Actually, sweety, a couple of years ago, in my town, someone was caught having been seen strangling a swan and stuffing it into a bin bag.

[Tilly2]

I don't think we have pike in our river. There's lots of fishing in the area. Wouldn't a pike have eaten all the fish?

[factor-fiction]

Don't they kill their own youngster sometimes if the cygnet is badly injured or very unwell?

[Tilly2]

Here we go.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1287701/Curry-chef-caught-police-covered-blood-feathers-killing-swan-given-suspended-prison-sentence.html

[tonyav]

Someone has nicked the carp from a few of the fishing pools in my area.

[Svejk]

yeah, I'm serious till. We used to think the Queen chopped your head off if you killed one. Well known that was, lol.

[viv38]

Will a gull take a cygnet? I know they take ducklings, Also eastern Europeans have taken swans off my local river, sadly.

[237SJ]

Foxes and mink.

[Tilly2]

It's very sad seeing them dwindle in numbers. I do know they have a lot of offspring because they lose so many but it's still not nice to see.

[Svejk]

maybe they'll 'turn up' till. ;-)

[Tilly2]

I don't really mind them being taken by other wildlife. It's when humans are involved, I seethe!

[carrust]

Otters will also take prey other than fish.

[Tilly2]

It might be otters, carrust. We have otters.

[carrust]

Otters also duff-up mink. So you exchange 1 predator for another.

[Tilly2]

Well, an indigenous predator must be better.

[Chipchopper]

A heron could be another suspect, if it got the opportunity.