I'm so having a thing with Black Swans this week... I mean, I see them all the time these days, but this week, there had definitely been a thing...I had a bunch of bread crusts left over in the freezer from various loaves of bread over the past few weeks, so I decided that it would be nice to go and feed the swans on my walk...
And I had enough crusts left that I could do it for three or four days running...
Of course the first couple of days I didn't take my camera... so naturally Monday was the only day that I had the bread, didn't have the camera, and was able to get really up close and personal with a pair of swans and their three little cygnets... they then disappeared for the rest of the week, although I did see them briefly this morning (camera, but no bread), right in the middle of the river, swimming merrily in the opposite direction.
I have to say, it's also a little intimidating having up to 9kg (20lbs) of black swan barrelling right up close to you when you have bread... and you would think, swans = placid and docile... not so much... those things are evil to each other... more than once this week one of them has either chased or attacked another swan (grabbing the offending swan's tail feathers with it's beak and not letting go) while I've been around. And actually, even when I'm not around... I watched one swan chase another down the river this morning, trying to grab for it.
And I'm always a little nervous they're going to turn on me, snatch the bread right out of my hand... although yesterday I did "stand up to" one particularly bullying swan when he was picking on one of the littler ones, and didn't give him any bread even though he was getting right up close to me.
Actually I was very nearly mobbed the day before, I was feeding a couple of swans in the water and a couple on land, and suddenly I realised that I was actually surrounded... and the ones in the water were hauling their way up onto the bank, even though I was throwing the bread down to them... but I've found the "throwing bread while walking backwards" approach works well...
I also knew there was something I liked about black swans...
According to the web site LiveScience, same-sex couples make up to 20 percent of all Black Swan pairings each year, and approximately 25 percent of all Black Swan pairs are of the same sex, and may live together for years.
Not that you would theoretically know a male/male black swan pairing unless you really knew what you were looking for... they all look pretty much the same to me...
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2 comments:
You're never old enough to learn something, I always believed there where only white swans just like pink flamingo's. Or maybe the flamingo's come also in other colours [the ones that don't eat crayfish and shrimps]
Actually that's the same response that the early settlers had... at least according to Wikipedia...
As for flamingos...
"...the feathers of an adult range from light pink to bright red due to the pigments obtained from their food supply..."
So technically the only other colour they come in is red... :)
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