Invisibility

 Many thanks to NP of Westcliff on Sea for bringing this potential disaster to the attention of the editorial team. With the new freedoms afforded by a post Brexit Britain, all sorts of shit is being discharged into our 'Majesty's '  inland waterways'. What if overnight swans became invisible? It is difficult enough to see the buggers coming now, they certainly don't require chemical enhancement to gain the upper-hand.

Snowdon Swans

Many thanks to JP of Kessingland for sending the editorial team this 'troubling' image of swans discovered in Snowdonia specifically bred to be with and influence young minds. Is the world ready for swans that can operate at altitude? Even more worrying, are they evolving?  Traditionally aren't the young ones usually grey?

It's what he would have wanted

 

Many thanks to Will Roberts of Chalkwell for sending the editorial team this uplifting photo taken in Hawkwell on this sunny Good Friday morning. You may choose to 'Trust' them but we wouldn't go as far as turning our backs on them!

International Swan Observance Day - March 03 - 2022

 

Once again the sun rises upon International Swan Observance Day and these beauties on Lake Lothing in Lowestoft are certainly making the best of it!  The third of March is also the anniversary of the birth of the legendary Joe Roberts 'Maidstone's own son and swan fancier extraordinaire'. Light ales all round up the bowls and 'old the bells'.

Swimming with the enemy

 

Credit for the image:  the  Guardian

"As a child, I saw shock flash in my grandfather’s eyes when he was accosted by a swan. I have been terrified ever since. But I want to find peace with these beautiful birds"

Thanks to JP of Pakefield for bringing this 'shocking' article to our attention!

It came upon the midnight clear

 

'Mute Night' 

Still through the cloven skies they come

With peaceful wings unfurled

And still their heavenly music floats

                                   O'er all the weary world                                          

Swans were luxury goods in Europe from at least the 12th century onward; the Medieval equivalent of flashing a Rolex or driving a Lamborghini. Owning swans signaled nobility, along with flying a hawk, running hounds or riding a battle-trained destrier (a knight's warhorse). Swans were eaten as a special dish at feasts, served as a centerpiece in their skin and feathers with a lump of blazing incense in the beak - the medieval equivalent of a 'Slutty Kebab'. They were particularly associated with Christmas, when they would be served in large numbers at royal feasts; forty swans were ordered for Henry III’s Christmas celebrations in 1247 at Winchester (not to be confused with The Winchester a 'watering-hole' associated with minders and  zombies ).

A Merry Christmas 2021 to all 'Blog Readers and Swan Fanciers' around the world and let us not forget, that during the Yuletide Festivities, those mute white feathered buggers are almost undetectable in the snow.

Camouflage

 

The swan is perfectly adapted for guerilla warfare. Note how these two blend into the background, their distinctive 'swan' outlines lost amongst the reeds. Devious buggers!