Over the past 8 months, two Black Swans have been diligently tending a nest in Manly Dam Park, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. In the early days (August 2024), spring was in the air. Nature was blooming and the swans were devoted and diligent. As spring turned to summer, the heat bore down. Cicadas shrieked, reeds grew up and died down again. Still, the pair tended the nest, rebuilding regularly, looking after each other, and clearing the water around their nest. (Story of two nesting Black Swans: Part 1)

Yesterday (9 April 2025), for the first time, the nest was empty when I walked past. The nest is the large circle of brown reeds lying horizontal behind the green reeds:

A hundred metres away, one of the swans was drifting on the water, hooting quietly and persistently:

Once or twice I heard the other swan replying from deep in the reeds, but I didn’t see it.

At my previous visit a week ago, the swans had moved their nest to a slightly different location, just ten metres or so away from the original location. I wondered if this meant that at last, there was hope for an egg or two. Who knows, perhaps the pair will proudly emerge with a train of cygnets to show. Alas, though, I doubt that there were ever any eggs in the nest. From a discussion on Reddit, it seems that the most likely explanation is that the swans are two males, practising nest-building and nest-sitting in the absence of a female to lay an egg.

Here’s a photo from October 2024, showing both swans at the nest:

Here’s one of the swans in early February 2025, off shift for a moment while its partner sits on the nest:

This is the tranquil site of the nest, now empty, but ready perhaps for a new attempt come spring:

Common name: Black Swan
Scientific name: Cygnus atratus
Approximate length: 120 cm
Date spotted: 23 August through to 9 April 2025 (late winter, through spring and summer, into autumn)
Approximate location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia