Tuesday, June 3, 2008

How To Make A Swan Angry

I always thought swans were beautiful, serene birds. After yesterday, I now know better. I stood in front of this gorgeous mama swan and her two baby swan ducklings to snap a good photograph. They posed nicely and I got my shot, but then I heard this wing flapping and hissing in the distance.


To my left a giant male swan is strutting toward me with his head tucked down, wings out, and feathers puffed up. I thought he was going to walk into my frame to make the picture a complete swan family. But he had something else in mind.

Instead of heading toward his family, he started cowering toward me. I slowly shuffled backward with my camera still out in front of me. The swan started hissing louder. And running. Then I started running. And he started running faster. So I screamed and spun around to sprint back to my grandfather's truck. I hopped in only to find the swan right behind me pecking viciously at the truck, making horrible noises. My heart was racing. If I hadn't taken cover, that big white bird probably would have pecked me to death. Shudder.

Lesson? Never mess with baby swans.

3 comments:

  1. ok english major- a baby swan is a cygnet not a swan duckling!
    Glad you escaped!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tami, how did you know that? I know I don't have a random memory bank of baby animal names.

    And, remember the story, "The Ugly Duckling?" The duckling grows up to be swan. I actually thought of that before typed the word duckling. What kind of things are they teaching children if that's not the right name? I blame it on society.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What can I say? I'm just full of knowledge. Actually, I had a children's book about baby farm animals, and that was one of the animals in the book.

    ReplyDelete