If you’ve ever been in a stare down with a swan, you know, should push come to shove – you’re gonna lose, bad.
These three Black Swans (native to Australia and introduced to NZ) were fairly wary, but I’ve seen swans attack people too silly to understand if the very-large-bird wants the whole loaf of bread, give it to him, now!
Oh, and don’t ever get too close to a pelican that has figured out that with it’s bill wide open, it’s wings wide, and charging (well, waddling quickly), it’s quite threatening looking. I did that when I was about ten, and I was scared of pelicans for quite some time afterward.
They look about as ungainly off the water as any bird I’ve seen. Maybe that’s why they’re so ornery — they hate looking like clods.
Yep, their proportions are all wrong for dry land. Of course, since they are dabblers, they use that long neck to get down to the water plants that they feed on. Unfortunately, this means that even when they are in the water, what you see of them is their butt sticking straight up in the air. Still, when just floating or lazily paddling about, they are beautiful birds.
Oh, and clearly you’ve never seen a Loon try to walk. 😉 Loons are stunning birds with a haunting call, but their legs are so far back that they can’t walk at all – they kinda skooch along. Needless to say, they rarely leave the water.
If you’ve never been fortunate enough to hear a loon in the wild here’s an audio link.
Where were these audio links when we used to call loons. We would go out into the wood, cup our fingers and yell loooooon through them. I always wondered why we never saw any. 🙂
LOL.
I can’t imagine why they didn’t come a running. 😉
My grandparents had geese – a traumatic encounter when you’re the same height.
I love pelicans – so beautiful and graceful as they float over the water perfectly confident that food will appear. So patient as they await the boats of generous fishermen, noble birds they are.
I’m still scared of geese, not to mention roosters.
Having grown up during the post-DDT decimation of the Brown Pelican population, I was always thrilled to see them, especially as it became clear that their numbers were growing again.
Once, when I was snorkeling, I saw a pelican dive into the water from underwater. It was very startling. I think I back-peddled furiously for a split second until I figured out what I’d seen (and more importantly that it wasn’t after me).
While they are generally elegant birds, I caught this group of Australasian Pelicans doing their best “Stooges” imitation.
haven’t ever encountered swans, but ms Bu can attest to the agressive nature of canadian geese….they can be a mite testy
so “hi!” from the comfort of her chaise
clik
later
lTMF’sA
Hi Bu. Canada geese, in my experience, are clearly the testiest.
Comfy looking lounge you’ve got there.