Mute Swan

For Throwback Thursday, let's look at someone I saw around a decade back, a Mute Swan.

The first thing to know about them is that they aren't mute. They may say things like "Kheorrr" or "Kloorrr", and also do some grunting, snorting, and hissing. Your Mute Swan's silence probably means they have nothing to contribute to the conversation; perhaps you should consider changing the subject to something more interesting to swans.

The Mute Swan isn't native to North America but was introduced here by those meddling Europeans. And while they are extremely photogenic, they can be pretty aggressive, bullying our native waterfowl out of an area. (I do wonder what happens when a belligerent Mute Swan comes upon a lake with a couple hundred Canada Geese. My guess is that a heavily outnumbered Mute Swan is going to show a certain amount of discretion around moderately large waterfowl.) I've heard that Mute Swans are especially aggressive towards other waterfowl when they have young with them, and that they may be more tolerant the rest of the year. FWIW I don't remember seeing ducks or geese around on the day I encountered the Mute Swan.

Here are a few swan/goose interactions:

  • In this one it looks like the swans just intimidated the geese into leaving the water.
  • In this one a swan is protecting its nest from another swan, and actually seems to be getting some support from a goose.
  • And in this one swans seemingly won't let geese in the water.

Though they have a reputation of mating for life, they're not fanatics about it. If one of a couple dies, the surviving swan will re-enter the dating pool and find a new mate.

July 17, 2012 at Washington Valley Reservoir
Photo 11331007, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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