The swan has inspired many Irish legends and fairytales

I sometimes walk in the outer reaches of the Ox Mountains and out there it is not uncommon to stumble upon small lakes such as the Cloonacool Lakes, the Tullyvilla Lakes or Lough Minaun. These lakes are in the wilderness and yet, invariably, you will find a pair of swans there, enjoying splendid isolation.

It is easy to understand how the story of the Children of Lir was created, for who really knows the lives of these creatures; where they came from, their true age or the secrets they carry.

The legend 

'Discovering Ireland' provides a concise summary of the old legend. Like many Irish legends, it mixes the natural landscape with fairytale and the arrival of Christianity.

According to the story, long ago there was an Irish King called Lir with four beautiful children. Their mother died when the children were very young and King Lir eventually remarried. But the new Queen was a devious woman of witchcraft who wanted the throne to herself, and saw the children as a threat to her plans. One day, the Queen took the children down to the lake to teach them to swim, but once the children got into the water, the evil Queen cast a spell on them, turning them into Swans.

For 900 years the Children of Lir were doomed to live as swans. They lived on Lake Davra, the sea of Moyle and the Lake Isle of Glora in Mayo, before their spell was broken with the arrival of Christianity to Ireland. When the Children of Lir heard the sound of bells ringing out from a church, they flew down to investigate and as they entered the church their feathers fell away and they once again became human.

Secret lives 

The secret life of the swan is quite intriguing. The Mute Swan is one of the most common swans, its long, curved neck and graceful glide a regular sight on our lakes. The fact that it is ‘mute’ only adds to its mystique. The mute swan is easily recognised by its all-white body and its reddish-orange bill that has a large black knob at the base. The swan’s closest relatives are geese and ducks.

Swans usually mate for life, although 'divorce' is not unheard of, particularly following nesting failure. The remaining swan will often take up with another. Swans feed in water and on land. They are almost entirely herbivorous, although they may eat small amounts of aquatic animals. In the water, food is obtained by up-ending or dabbling, and their diet is composed of the roots, stems and leaves of aquatic and submerged plants.

Birdwatch Ireland explains the sounds that the Mute Swan makes. Apart from a few grunts and the sounds of their wings in flight, it seems they are indeed, mute.

Despite the name, not mute! Adults give a curious snorting or rumbling sound. Juveniles beg with high-pitched whistle. Hisses when alarmed. Does not call in flight, but a loud whistling sound is produced by the wings.

Mating and nesting 

Swans nest on the ground near water. Their nests measure about three metres wide. Unlike ducks and geese, the male helps with the nest construction, and will also take turns incubating the eggs. The average egg, for the mute swan, weighs almost a pound. The clutch size can be up to seven and the incubation period is anything from 34 to 45 days, about six weeks.

Tralee Bay Wetlands, in their nature blog, explains the early life of young swans, as they negotiate growing up and leaving home.

Once the cygnets become more confident, they will ride on their parents' backs, sitting on their backs between the adult's rested wings. This makes a perfect scene for a perfect photo! 

After a few months of practicing, the cygnets will be able to fly, but they will not leave their parents’ sides for another year. In the meantime, both parents will teach them all the skills they need to know, such as how to feed, how to protect themselves, and so on.

Come late autumn or the beginning of winter, the now young adults will have their full plumage, which is predominantly white. At this time, the young will either stay put in their home with their parents, or they will leave to winter in places such as Middle Eastern countries. Many of the Irish Mute Swan population stays in Ireland.

Mink Menace 

Swans defend their nests ferociously. To understand this, take this scenario… the female is anxious to start a family, the pair are dedicated to the concept and have made a commitment to each other for the long haul. The nest where she has laid her precious eggs is large, exposed and vulnerable to attack. When she sits to incubate her eggs, she is a sitting duck – or sitting swan in this case. What is needed to keep things safe is a watchful, aggressive presence that will repel all-comers. This aggression is instinct, an act of preservation that will be visited on anything that comes within range of the nest – including humans.

The suggestion that a swan could break a human’s arm with a flap of its wing is not true. The truth is that such an encounter would do more harm to the swan’s wing. Besides, the swan will engage in all kinds of hissing and flapping in an effort to avoid any such close contact with humans.

While on the subject of humans interacting with swans, never feed wild fowl bread. They much prefer the healthier snacks of oats, thawed-out frozen peas, salad leaves or grapes cut in half.

There are few sights in nature more pleasurable than that of a mother swan trailing her newly-hatched babies, known as cygnets, across the surface of a still lake on a summer morning. A tragic departure in recent times, however, is the mysterious disappearance of these cygnets shortly afterwards. It seems the invasive mink are principally to blame. They can attack at will, using their aquatic abilities, and not even a sizable and weighty cygnet is too much for them to take down. While this all happens under the noises of the usually very protective parent swans, there seems to be little they can do in the situation and those who do get to intervene often sustain serious injuries themselves.

It is horrible to see cygnets disappear in this way. In recent years, I have seen this happen at Lough Talt; one day a happy swan family, the next, broken-hearted parents. It is a sad modern-day ending to the story of The Children of Lir.