The pond we often visit for walks/Pokémon hunting used to have a swan couple. they were kind of the mascots of the village, featuring on signs, they were looked after and taken in during winter, but last year the unthinkable happened: a swan divorce! One of them left and the other one soon vanished (died?), so for the last year there were no swans. Now they got a new swan family, complete with cygnets.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
BTW, shortly before I took these from a safe distance, a lady let her baby(!) up to one metre to the swans. But guess whom she would have blamed if the baby had gotten eaten…
No matter who gets blamed, the baby will have learned something valuable about swans and its mommy.
So beautiful! I love swans, that’s really cool that people have “taken them under their wing” so to speak and look after them.
It continues to appal me just how ignorant people can be about animals. Going to Yellowstone National Park as a child we saw it all the time, so it’s not just a new thing. There have always been ignorant people and I guess there always will be.
StonedRanger
It was literally a baby. 14 months at most, really just toddling at mummy’s hand. That kid was way too young to learn such complex things.
They are so pretty! But I’d never get close to a swan. That’s what zoom lenses are for.
I used to have to take my dad to his hospital at Fort Lewis (in WA State, USA). When the place was built, the architects put in a lovely little pond, and hospital admins brought in a pair of swans, ostensibly to keep the geese away from the building itself. They’re on their third couple now (this hospital has been around about 25 years) and one thing true about these swans is that they do nothing about the geese whatsoever. They are lovely to look at, though. The hospital staff are very proactive in making sure no one gets near them, and visitors are very good about doing so (AFAICT). Closest I’ve been was about two feet…on opposite sides of a glass door. One which I had no intention of opening, because I’m pretty sure one of those birds could do some serious damage if it decided it should.
Anne, Cranky Cat Lady @4,
Agreed. I’d rather make friends with PZ’s spiders than get close to a swan…and I’m deathly afraid of spiders.