Thursday, October 12, 2006

ko-hoh! ko-hoh!

There are several different routes that I could take to work, but the one which is generally the shortest is also the prettiest. The road winds along past sheep pastures, plus the occasional horses, cows and, to my astonishment, swans.

The first time I drove past the swan pond, I assumed that the fog or my bleary eyes misled the active part of my brain. On following trips, I watched for the pair again. It took me a while to realize that on some mornings they swam in their pond, and on others simply dozed in the grass, under the weeping willow tree.

I'm curious about this pair; clearly this is home, but for how long? Why do they not waddle into the road as with the Canadian Geese who seem to have invaded suburban Indianapolis on such mornings? There's no visible fense, and with everything I've been told about the potential agressiveness of swans, I can't imagine installing the collars for an invisible fence.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll take the swans over those damn geese any day!

tommyspoon said...

Oh, don't be fooled by their prettiness, topor. Swans are worse than geese. Once, many moons and jobs ago, I was eating outside by a pond and a swan grabbed the sandwich outta my hand with its sharp beak. It then startled me further with an unholy squonk! that let me know in no uncertain terms that I was on its turf.

The building management relocated them the next day.

Alison said...

Swans are terrifically territorial - that's most likely why they are there. A pair of swans is frequently enough to keep entire flocks of Canadian geese from moving in...