Are Swans being unreasonable?

I saw a Swan kill a duckling a few years ago. It was genuinely harrowing and I still feel so bad for that duckling.

Also, one of the park lakes that I used to visit daily had three swans. A couple and another male swan. One day we found the third wheel Swan dead and ripped to shreds. I don't have proof but we always suspected the other two swans.

I don't mean weaponry. Arms like avian versions of people arms.

Swans, geese and ducks are all weird. They waddle along looking like they should have arms.

I've seen someone being attacked by a swan and I did know someone growing up who managed to get their arm broken by one.

I think you have to be pretty idiotic to achieve this though. They can get very defensive if you go near their nests so people trying to steal eggs or touch chicks are usually chased and pecked. Most sensible people back off when the swan starts looking aggressive.

No LTB? At all? Even if their mate screamed in the Sistine chapel or did t rex in the supermarket? Or even worse, snapped and farted during yoga?

I thought it was your leg lol have constantly told my 4 year old not to go near them as their wings can break your leg 😂😂😂😂 i know it’s an old Wife’s tale but still I grew up thinking they were dangerous 😂

🤣🤣

I shouldn’t like to find out, they’re fast bastards and definitely don’t listen to reason…don’t try to escape from one while you’re in a kayak

That’s hilarious! 😆

I’m proper laughing at this thread!

I was once running, turned a corner to join the canal tow path and there was a swan on the canal. It’s nest and (I assume) Mrs Swan were on the opposite side of the canal. It came straight over and did that scary pose. I ran back round the corner and hid. I looked back after a couple of minutes and it was waiting for me! In the end I took a detour along the road and joined the canal further down. I wasn’t prepared to mess with a swan!

I was bitten by the "bread knife" serrated beak of a swan as a kid on the Norfolk Broads! It was just hungry for the bread I was holding, but thankfully didn't try to engage me in any other kind of combat! I think my own squawking about being bitten put it off! 🤣

Tbf I think if we replaced the police with swans things would definitely improve pretty quickly

If swans can't really break a man's arm then it's been an amazing PR campaign by Big Waterfowl - nobody even considers messing with a swan. I reckon the police could learn a lesson or two from them.

ETA - love this thread, it reminds me of MN in the olden days.

A very long time ago my dad and his friend were playing with their boats on the lake and a swan broke his friends arm. So we’ve always had the warning.

also not climbing up a slide due to bad family experience

now climbing up a slide with a swan at the top - that’s dangerous

We have a swan in our garden who’s an absolute arsehole. He chases us as soon as he sees us. He’s a young male and pretty massive. I really hope he finds a mate soon to distract him from terrorising us.

And they are ace at blending families -
No DSC (Dearest Step Cygnets )issues , the females will take on a cygnet in need with their own.

Still don;t like them though !

They mate for life. No LTB on Swansnet.

I really dislike (not hate , that's too strong a word ) Geese/Swans/Ducks .
Not scared of them just a strong and rational dislike .

So as not to taint my DC brains with my tardiness we took them to local swan ponds etc.
On holiday ( pre school age ) we went to a Swan Sanctuary in Dorset .
All the advice about giving them space etc. Swans will foster orphan cygnets the same age as their own ( very reasonable birds )
When they fed them , anyone who wanted to was invited through the gate to pick up some grain from their wheelbarrow .

We moved away from the gate .......but my DS ( little sod) clamboured through the fence and hotfooted it over to The Swans .
No fear obvs !

He didn't break anything , I aged 10 years .

I had a boss who had his arm broken being attacked by a swan.

It was because of him staggering backwards in fright rather than through karate-esque flailing on the swan’s part, so it doesn’t match your brief… funnny though

DH's work colleague did have his arm broken by a swan attack while they were at work. I don't know exactly how his arm got broken, directly or as a consequence of the fall, but it definitely happened when the swan attacked him.

My cousin’s best friend’s next door neighbour’s dad’s dog-sitter’s teacher’s nephew had his arm broken by a swan 😉😅

My little dog got swiped round the face by a swan. She wasn't bothering it just hoovering up some bird seed that someone had sprinkled for them ! They do get quite agressive/ hissing at out local country park and block the path in their little gangs. I just walk through and tell them to move and that they don't own the place. They generally oblige.

Me and my grandad were attacked by a Canadian goose when I was a young child. Swans never seemed so scary after that. Except one time on the towpath in Windsor when I was surrounded on all sides by the fuckers looking to mug me for food. They were even in the water so I couldn't save myself by jumping in either.

A friend came round the corner of an ait in her kayak and didn’t see the swans on the other side - she didn’t come close or run into them, the first she knew was being whacked hard on her back by one following fast and giving her a good pecking. It wasn’t even cygnet season. The bruising was quite something.

A local house had a flock of guard geese when I was a teenager. Terrifying if you needed to pass through the lane that ran past as I did on my way to my Saturday job.

Plus I was attacked and bitten by an Andean goose at the local Wildfowl trust.

Swans have always been good to me.