It's day 30 and I'm doubting that the incubation period for swan eggs is 35-40 days for the cygnets to hatch.
The female mute swan has been the ideal parent so far, sitting on the nest that she and her mate have built out of reeds. Rain or shine. Neither Memorial day traffic of picnickers nor the Brooklyn half-marathon that ran by have kept her from her duty to guard and warm her eggs. "She must be so bored." said a retiree a few days ago. And I'm thinking, "do animals get bored?"

Sometimes the female swan will lift herself up and turn clockwise, just a few degrees at a time, digging her orange beak inside the nest, checking on her eggs.

Even though today I sit on a fallen tree just above the nest, I see nothing. No glimpse of a shell. She wiggles her tail feathers and sits back down. Next, she preens her chest feathers, occasionally pushing a few into the moist, reedy nest.