In our local park, there’s a pond where we’ve been watching the progress of a spectacular swan family with nine cygnets. Early on in their family life they perfected the art of moving about the lake in procession, their synchronised graceful  movements drawing the eyes of everyone out for a walk. Over a period of months we watched the cygnets growing bigger, getting stronger and bolder, turning a pale dappled brown. Every time we went for a walk by the pond we would see photographers capturing wonderful images of eleven swans cutting stately diagonals through the chaotic scrums of ducks, coots and seagulls.

Then suddenly and rather shockingly this week, all the cygnets were gone. There was no corps de ballet any more. The two parent swans were idly pestering passers-by for bits of bread. Where have the young ones gone? Do they take it into their heads to fly away and seek new homes, and if so, do they all depart at the same time?  Will each cygnet try to seek out a separate home, or have they all gone off together? How far do they go? Will they ever return?