AIBU?
To think that swans are awful creatures?
SkinittingFluffyBunnyBonnets · 09/04/2011 21:02
I was walking along the canal today....ours is quite picturesque with barges, lots of reedy plants and duckies with their ducklings etc. There have always been a pair of swans on the canal...as long as I've lived here (most of my life) I remember seeing them....well today I heard an awful noise as I walked and I saw this swan shoving through some reeds on the other side of the canal and this duck freaking out...and the swan put it's head into the reeds and came out with a tiny, wriggling ducklng in it's beak! 
It has STOLEN it from the nest and the poor thing was wriggling and the Mother was freaking and the swan dipped it into the water over and over and drowned it.
I walked away but lots of people stood and stared in shock...and when I looked back it had it's horrible big swanny neck and head stuck BACK IN the reeds and was after another one to drown.
WHY did it do this? They don't eat meat do they? Was it after the nsting spot or something?
It really disturbed me.
Reality · 09/04/2011 21:06
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MogTheForgetfulCat · 09/04/2011 21:15
I once saw a swan attack another swan by the side of a lake - it grabbed the second swan behind the head with its beak and slammed its head repeatedly into the ground - ugh. I thought at first that they were having sex 
but then realised it was just a horrible attack. They are mean, with mean little beady eyes. The second swan escaped, btw, but was still horrible to see.
Virgowoo · 09/04/2011 21:22
I am not a fan per se (quite frightened of birds of most types) but have seen a pair a swans nesting today and it was quite lovely.
Mum swan was sitting in her enormous nest of reeds rearranging bits to her design while Dad swan was swimming around collecting bits to add to it. There's a co-operative relationship for you.
Horrible about the duckling drowning, but what can you do?
hellymelly · 09/04/2011 21:22
they are very territorial when they are nesting,that is why it was attacking the other nest. I lived on a canal boat for a decade and a half and saw alot of this sort of thing,by coots mostly (they are very bad-tempered and aggressive,even with their own babies).I have never seen a swan actually get hold of a duckling,usually they get well out of the way.
Thingumy · 09/04/2011 21:50
what about cuckoos?
Some sick bastard has been killing swans here in Somerset
They aren't evil or cruel,they are territorial when nesting.
FlaminGreatResurrection · 09/04/2011 21:52
Swans really are terrible beings. Canadian geese are too. It's the looooong neck, I'm sure of it. Guinea pigs have hardly any neck at all and they wouldn't hurt a fly. I've never been chased screaming from the duck-pond with a stroller by a guinea pig
Neck length: evil ratio.
My best mate lived on a smallholding and the geese would chase us when we were getting out of the car I'd eat swans too but I don't like meat.
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