The swans I wrote about this spring have made the New York Times. 

The authors seem to think that the swans being violent is a surprising and new development.  However, my experience is that violent and territorial is standard behavior for these birds when other birds are around.

Another thing to note is that the article mentions that the southern family includes four cygnets.  The southern family is the one I encountered and my pictures and video show five cygnets.  I guess one of them didn’t make it.  Maybe that’s what pissed off the father.  Or maybe the one cygnet with the northern family is an adopted runaway.

At any rate, it seems that local residents are trying to mediate between the two families.  I wonder what they are trying to accomplish.  Humans are so strange.

I went to my new house today to meet an exterminator who was going to take care of some ants that have taken up residence under the house. 

While I was walking around the house, I noticed a spider in a bush on one side of the house.  I asked the exterminator, whom I suppose is an expert in these things, if he could identify it and he said that he didn’t know the real name of it, but locally they call them banana spiders.  He added that it would grow about three or four times bigger and indicated that it would be about as big as his hand.  He said that it was relatively harmless to humans, and they are good to have around to catch mosquitoes.

The picture I have here was taken with my cell phone and it is not very clear at all.  Apparently, this one is a baby.  It is only about an inch and a half across.  If this one survives and is still around when we move in, I’ll try to get a better picture.  In the meantime, if you are interested, here is a very good picture of a banana spider that I found and a little bit of information about them.

Link: photo
Link: information

Deb and I went walking in Prospect Park again this morning and purposely walked by the spot where we encountered a gaggle of geese and an irate swan.  This morning there were a few geese, but we were able to see the entire swan family.

The cygnets are downright adorable.  Everybody seemed to be in a much better mood this morning and it made for a peaceful encounter.

Following are some pictures and a video.

Link: photo set on Flickr

While Deb and I were walking in Prospect park this morning, we came upon a gaggle of geese that themselves stumbled upon an irate swan defending his nest.

The geese seemed to be on the move.  There were mostly goslings in the group with a few adults.  My guess is that they had gone for a walk to forage and were heading back to the lake.  Unfortunately, they tried to enter the lake a few feet from where a pair of nesting swans were protecting their nest.  Some of the other passers by said that they had seen cygnets in the nest earlier, but when we were there one swan was completely covering the nest and the other was on the shore posturing. 

The geese seemed determined to get back to the lake until the swan had enough and started charging.  What followed was almost comical.  The goslings scattered while the adults lagged behind to distract the swan.  Some of the goslings walked right up to me and seemed determined to follow me to safety.  I didn’t know where to lead them, but I was able to get a few good up close pictures with my cell phone.

I also got some video of the swan charging around.  In the very back of the video there is a white spot.  It can’t be seen clearly, but that is the other swan sitting on the nest.

The Gaggle vs The Swan

Link: Photo set on Flickr