The most recent MA Breeding Bird Atlas lists all the nesting species in the state, and heads each entry with some appropriate quote from the bird literature or sometimes from genuine literary literature, which yes may sound a bit redundant. In the case of the mute swan, they chose the latter and it’s a nice quote from The Swan at Edgewater Park, a poem by Ruth L. Schwartz about swans on Lake Erie in Cleveland and much more than that (highly recommended!): “Beauty isn’t the point here/of course the swan is beautiful”.
Here are swans from last winter & this on Jamaica Pond, which seems to have at least a few year round these days, with a few extra in winter. Swans are inherently visually interesting, though obviously one can overdo it with a camera to the point of inanity, likewise with vistas & sunsets & all that. Mea maxima culpa. But you might like some or all of these snaps so here they are.
The mute swan, for all its beauty, is one of those avian invasives, in the same class as house sparrows and starlings. And yep, same as with those other ubiquitous species, it was sentimental Victorians who brought them over from England “as a boutique item during the Victorian Age, something nice to look at during the great era of exhibitionism in the northeast United States”, or so the Atlas tells us. It goes on to add that “the population we have now probably descends from birds initially introduced on, and ultimately escaped from, Long Island and Hudson Valley estates around the beginning of the 20th century.” Yep, those darn New Yorkers once again.
The first breeding atlas from the 70s shows all the nesting on Cape Cod and the south coast; Atlas 2 from ten years ago has them nesting everywhere east of Worcester. Like all invasives, they invade aggressively, and in these parts it seems they’re everywhere where there’s big water. We counted 75 on the Westport river a few months ago. They are indeed beautiful, but with nasty dispositions at times. If one approaches you hissing, don’t just stand there in wonderment at the sound it’s making but back off like it was a bear or a cougar. And check out that poem. John
