I have a bunch of questions about a pair of wild mute swans that live near my house (on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Toronto, Canada) that I have been watching for almost 10 years.

I first became aware of these swans, a male and a female, in about 2002. I have no idea how old they were when I met them.

They have been together all these years, raising a family every spring. Usually about 8 cygnets hatched, with about three surviving through the summer into the fall to fledge.

This past summer, (2010) there were only three that hatched as far as I know. The other difference is that in the spring of 2010, the pen and cob moved their nest to a new site that was so far away I could only see it (barely) with binoculars. In all the years prior, the swans nested right on the banks of a busy yacht club, where I could watch them easily.(And it seems they were more successful, biologically, at the old, busy site, too, if you consider how many eggs hatched.)

This pair of swans was absolutely devoted to one another for all the years I watched them. (I could tell you stories!) Other males occasionally tested the pair bond, and fought with the male, but the long-time mate always won.

If you would like to see an extremely short video of my swans doing their pre-mating dance (I think of them as mine because I love them so much), you can see it on my website here:
http://www.wildaboutthecity.com/penny-and-tycho-in-love/

The last time I saw the two of them together I think was around early January 2011. Then one day, I went down to the beach, and they weren’t there.
The next time I saw either of them, it was only the male, Tycho, alone. At first, I just thought that the female, Penny, had gone walkabout for some girl time. But then I saw the male alone again, then again, and you know the rest.

Penny has never returned and I’m certain she must be dead, or Tycho would be with her.
(By the way, for years they would always come to me when I called their names, and were very, very friendly with me.)

I have been absolutely devastated by this. I miss Penny ferociously.

So here are my questions.:
1. What could have possibly have happened to Penny?.
2. Do swans grieve? Would the loss of Penny have hurt or bothered Tycho in any way?
3. Tycho is now cruising our bay all by himself. Could he be lonely?
4. Will Tycho get a new mate? There are no other mute swans in our particular bay, but there are lots of others only a few kilometers away up and down the shoreline in other bays.
5. How does a single mature male swan handle the urge to build a nest. That’s what he should be doing now (or have done by now…)

By the way, I work for the largest newspaper in Canada (The Toronto Star) and am considering writing a story about this. Is there someone I could phone at the Regal Swan to interview in that case?

I thank you in advance for any light you can shed on this very sad story.

Yours,
M.L. Bream