Can anyone help me?

I believe that only one pair of swans occupies any piece of water.

Every year the swans on the lake near me have baby swans. They are cute and little for a while and then the grow up.

Then they disappear.

Where do they go? Do they fly off to some other lake somewhere?

If so, why surely the lakes will fill up very quickly. But you don't see swans very often.

Hi Paul

I'm not sure this is exactly what you're looking for, but it seems that swans are pretty devoted parents

quote:

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Swans are devoted parents, keeping a watchful eye on their brood, allowing them to 'hitch a lift' on their backs and diligently teaching them how to feed on the underwater plants which will form the main part of their diet. The family group remains together until the winter or following spring when the juveniles are evicted from the breeding territory. Young birds may then join flocks of non-breeding swans, and often remain in these colonies for two or three years until they are old enough to breed. They will eventually form a pair bond and begin the search for a vacant nesting territory.

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That's from The Swan Trust

If you want to keep an eye on Swans as they migrate from Russia, The Wildlife & Wetlands Trust has this excellent site where you can track a group of Whooper and Bewick swans.

Hiya Paul,

Lawrence has beaten me to it, but just to add something to the discussion: the answer is that it depends on what sort of swan we're talking about. There are three species of swan that are seen regularly in the UK - mute swans, whooper swans and Bewick's swan, which all behave slightly differently in this respect. Mute swans are by far the commonest throughout the British Isles, and are highly territorial during the breeding season; on small lakes and short stretches of river, you're only likely to see one family at a time, but larger bodies of water can support more than one. Some birds stick to their territories all year round, while others form winter flocks and can be seen in large numbers sometimes numbering hundreds.

Mute swans never move very far even in the winter, but whooper and Bewick's swans are highly migratory and generally arrive here from colder climes further north; whoopers usually from Iceland and Bewick's from Siberia. Both species arrive around October and usually leave again for their breeding grounds sometime in March, so if you see a swan anywhere in the UK between April and September, the chances are it's a mute swan.

Hope that helps!

S.