Bad Egg?

Yesterday the local swans were at a totally different nesting site. There was an egg but unfortunately the site was beginning to sink.

Today we saw they were back on a dinghy they had successfully used a couple of years ago. (See earlier blog).

There was an egg. Had the egg been moved from the other location or was this a completely new egg?

The hen swan appeared content and seemed to be settling down on the nest. Five minutes later she stands up, stretches her neck and makes a noise. The next thing we saw was her attacking the egg with her beak and breaking it. She then unceremoniously removed the shell and tossed it into the water and then started to clear away the yolk and clean the surrounding area.

It was an unbelievable and somewhat distressing sight. Did she know that there was something wrong with this egg and that is why she destroyed it? Nature moves in mysterious ways and we shall see waht happens over the next couple of days and weeks.