In article <
l219bu...@mid.individual.net>, John Williamson
<
johnwil...@btinternet.com> on Thu, 1 Feb 2024 at 10:16:29 awoke
Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote
Springtime pairing off is somewhat fraught, where males and females do
not recognise that another bird is a potential mate and fight.
Nonetheless analysis of nestling DNA has shown that the female of a pair
has played away from home. Whether the male of a pair has played away
from home is not so clear.
>
>Some people who know no better also claim that swans are gentle creatures.
>
Robins are territorial 24/7/365, as far as I am aware outside the
breeding season swan territories breakdown. Where swans are very
aggressive is towards potential predators. How much of that is pure
show, I do not know. Their wing bones are, like most flying bird bones,
hollow sacks used in respiration. Very effective at knocking a predator
off balance. I have never tried to face down a swan, but I would be much
more worried about its beak than its wings. When swans are being handled
the wings are wrapped against their body more to protect them.
As a small child I was pecked by a mother hen protecting her 'chicks',
in reality goslings who were already bigger than herself and myself. She
drew blood. Later in the year I was chased by the three goslings out of
the chicken run. Vicious they were. Come Christmas I had the
satisfaction of feasting on one of them.