All aboard! Mother swan takes babies for a cruise.

Daily Mail ^ | 04 August 2009

[Lorianne]

Baby swan alert! . .

[LukeL]

So Cute.

[DJ MacWoW]

Cute pics but those swans are nasty.

[cripplecreek]

I see swans every day but I have never seen them do that.

[Old Sarge]

8.9 on the Cute-o-meter!

[GovernmentShrinker]

She’ll be nasty to you if you try to go near her babies. But she sure isn’t nasty to them.

[GovernmentShrinker]

The first picture looks like she’s checking to make sure they’re all tucked in securely before she takes off across the water.

[cripplecreek]

I saw adult swans killing goslings this spring.

[bunster]

Whoo - for a minute there I thought Chet had logged on.

[Flycatcher]

Cute pics but those swans are nasty

Especially that species. That's the mute swan, a Eurasian native (which is why these pics come from Britain).

However, the mute swan has been introduced in America and has taken hold in certain places -- particularly the northeast seaboard and southern Lake Michigan. They are a VERY aggressive species. I much prefer our native tundra and trumpeter swans.

[DJ MacWoW]

You don’t have to get near her babies for them to get nasty. Just get near them. Chinese Nob geese are mean too.

[DJ MacWoW]

We have some in local ponds and they even chase off ducks. Saw a vid on youtube of a bride and groom trying to get their pic taken by a pond. That swan went after the bride. Came out of the pond to get her. They are lovely creatures but..........

[DesertDreamer]

Poor babies! How are they ever going to learn to swim with an over-protective mother like that?

[cripplecreek]

I think the DNR quietly erradicated a bunch of swans on this lake over the winter. There were 50 or 60 of them last fall and this summer there appear to be about 4 adults and a dozen youngsters.

50 or 60 swans doesn’s sound like a lot but on 6 or 7 hundred acres of lake, its way too many.

[Flycatcher]

Definitely. I love birds more than anyone on Free Republic -- guranteed! -- (see my tagline) but the non-native mute swan really does cause problems.

Unlike our native tundra swan (and most populations of trumpeter) the mute doesn't migrate. It's a permanent resident where it's been introduced and it's crowding out other species. To be honest, I don't want it entirely eradicated -- it really is a gorgeous bird -- but its numbers need to be managed. I'm glad to hear that action is being taken in that regard.

[cripplecreek]

Same here. I don’t want the muties completely gone, just kept at managable levels.

I saw two adult swans catch a young Canada goose gosling at the same time this spring. It wasn’t pretty and I now know where the term “limb from limb” comes from.

[DallasDeb]

Great picture. Thanks for the post. I needed something to lift my mood with all the crap I’m reading about our country going down the drain.

[fishergirl]

Even so, the pictures are beautiful!

[DJ MacWoW]

They are beautiful. But I still don’t want to “pet” one. :-)

[GovernmentShrinker]

Probably males killing the offspring of other males. Common in many species. Including humans.