UKC

Whenever I share a sandwich with one they always hiss at me. Is this their usual noise or are they genuinely peeved? The cygnets are usually OK, until they get to adult size and then they're hissy fitting like mum and dad.

They’re peeved at you. Basically, they feel threatened. What’s odd is I’ve known them swim quite a distance to come and have a hiss at me. 

Swans are evil things.  I’ve seen one drown a full size canada goose and I’m convinced their huge nests are made of the bodies of missing people.

With their arms broken

Some are real whoppers 

Or whoopers?

Killed one in an eight 30 years ago. Nasty birds.

I've found them fairly content to gave me come up close enough for them to take oats from my hand. That's with cygnets. But maybe that's because they had got used to me coming up to feed them, and always greeting them with the same phrase. They sometimes hissed a bit, but relaxed when I squatted down to feed them.

Walking along the canal in early May there was a pair who'd built a nest right next to the towpath. Every other nest I've seen has been on the side away from people. Mr Swan did his best to mug me as I sidled past and I wondered how they'd get on with all the passing folk and dogs (it's not a particularly busy stretch though). I walked past again yesterday and there they were with a big, healthy strapping cygnet. Perhaps this is their first attempt at raising a family? Further along the canal I've seen a pair with nine cygnets.

If all you can do is hiss, then you're gonna hiss.

I took part in a full naval battle with one on a paddle board. It was like Master and Commander. 

How the hell did it hold the paddle?

We used to have a couple of swans near our boat. Mrs would often feed them, but they nearly always hissed a bit. They used tap on the side of the boat to get our attention. I guess the hissing is some form of communication, not always anger 

Gold!!! Hahahah!

Walking down by the canal today I came across a couple of swans and their four cygnets. Mrs Swan hissed but Mr Swan took the bread without comment. The little ones skittered around doing their cute 'whee-whee-whee-whee' thing.

Black swan, 1st May, Marsh Side RSPB reserve nr Southport. Check out the size of its nest !  

Mr Swan must have been on mute. 

I saw one a few years ago in the Lune off Glasson Dock. That's the only time I've seen them in Britain.

Black Swans are cat E in the British List - which basically means they're all escapees or descendants of escapees. But it's quite likely there are now enough around (doesn't have to be many) for there to be a self-sustaining population.

Don't they all belong to the queen, sorry, king?

I think he should pay the bill

By the way they were eaten in the Middle Ages 

Mute swans only.

Not Black, Whooper or Bewick.

I was invoved in an open air musical production on Lake Thun in Switzerland a few years ago; the stage was built on the shore and backstage was a load of scaffolding overhanging the water, perfect for jumping in after the show. There was a family of swans, 2 parents and 5 cygnets, who made our life hell. The daddy would spread himself out at the entrance to the cast catering tent and refuse to allow anyone in; one of the sax players in the orchestra got attacked while attempting to paddleboard to his place of work. A member of the cast had a tentative project to scientifically determine at what age exactly cute cygnets turn into bitches/a...holes; it got interrupted by a spell of bad weather coming down from the Eiger and when the sun finally shone again they had all metamorphosised into little terrors. Lovely birds.

I once rescued a large male swan. The daft thing had somehow got its head stuck between railings and under some sticks, as soon as the sticks were lifted it could pull its head out from the railings. The problem was I only had access on the swan side of the railings so I had to stand beside it to free it.

Was it grateful?? Was it ****!

It went for me in full attack and as it chased me down the towpath enraged, 4 or 5 of its evil mates left the canal to join in. I didn't suffer a broken arm as they say, but I'm definitely not going to rush to the help of any swans in future 

The only successful counter-attack on a swan of which I´ve heard was recounted by a friend; she was then 6 years old and walking along the towpath with her grandpa when they got attacked. Her grandpa managed to successfully kick the swan in the arse so forcefully that it sailed in a big arc back into the canal and didn´t bother them anymore.

A flock of Whoopers spent a month on a wet field here a couple of winters ago. I used to go down with my binoculars every day. One day I was very surprised to see a black swan in among them. There's some brick clay quarries hidden amongst trees nearby and I surmised that the swan lived there.

The late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies had the police visit him regarding a swan in his freezer. 

Apparently it had flown into power lines and been killed, and he’d reckoned there would be a fair bit of eating on it.  

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk/2005/mar/19/arts.environment

Farewell to Swanness

Brilliant article, thanks!

"They also took a pair of swan wings they found in a shed. I was going to give them to the Sanday school for their nativity play. Those they have already got are looking a bit dusty, and these would have been ideal for the angel Gabriel."

That is just the school feathering their nest