I’ve always thought of mute swans as beautiful, but notoriously aggressive. The Wiki entry for mute swans notes that they can be tame, but they can also be impressively aggressive with their large size, threatening wing spread and hissing at those who come too far into their territory or too close to their nests.
I’ve heard several stories about boaters who inadvertently came too close to mute swans and ended up furiously paddling to get away from the agitated birds.
One of my more memorable times witnessing aggressive mute swan behavior came when we stayed at a cabin in small lakeside resort in northern Michigan.
A group of supposed outdoor writers occupying a nearby cabin made the mistake of feeding the mute swans by the lake. All was well until the writers ran out of food and went back into their cabin. The still-hungry swans walked right up to the door and began pecking on the glass, to the point that we wondered if they might break it.
The writers, trapped by a group of angry swans, shouted up to us to come chase the swans away.
We knew better.
The swans eventually left, but I always remember that lesson in keeping my distance from these beautiful birds.
So, it was fun to spot these large “swans” gracefully swimming near the John Ball Zoological Garden as we drove through Grand Rapids, Michigan.
These large paddle boats are a seasonal ride offered on a pond in the park just outside of the zoo. We caught several duos enjoying the beautiful sunny day with a 15-minute paddle around the pond in these uncharacteristically well-behaved swans.
Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.
© Dominique King 2009
My kids would absolutely love to ride in these! I have fond memories of the paddle boats in Golden Gate Park, but these are much more attractive!
Posted by: Bridget Smith | May 29, 2009 at 02:26 PM
Hi, what a gorgeous swan ride. Can you believe there are no swans in Costa Rica. Really, I've never seen a real one here, just a bunch of angry geese:)
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Posted by: marina villatoro | May 29, 2009 at 05:59 PM
what fun!! i like these swans better!
Posted by: Jessie Voigts | May 29, 2009 at 07:28 PM
Funny story about the mute swans. Ya can't get more mute than these, eh?
Posted by: Wanderluster | May 30, 2009 at 01:59 PM
Bridget-
Yep, these were so cute I made photowanderer stop the car and turn around so I could take the snaps. The photos aren't art, but the little boats were pretty unique, so I wanted to share.
Marina-We've got plenty of geese and mute swans around here...and I think the swans may be the more cantankerous of the two :)
Jessie-I couldn't resist turning around to get these photos. It looked like a lot of fun!
Wanderluster-Yup, these were pretty well behaved swans! We always laugh about the "outdoor writers" who didn't know enough not to feed the swans.
Posted by: Dominique | May 31, 2009 at 07:21 AM
Oh, thanks for posting this link! What a great story... so glad you made it out alive! LOL
Posted by: Angela K. Nickerson | July 18, 2009 at 02:10 PM
Angela-I had to tell the story once I took these photos and decided to use them for a Photo Friday :)
You notice we weren't fool enough to go out and feed the swans, and our cabin was up the hill a little way from the swan action at the supposed outdoor writers' cabin. We didn't think too much of their outdoor "expertise"! :lol:
Posted by: Dominique | July 19, 2009 at 06:58 AM