Swans

The swans that visit Central Park in Manhattan, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and at Wolfe’s Pond and Mt. Loretto on Staten Island are mute swans (Cygnus olor). I find them regal creatures, and enjoy watching them. The State of New York would like to see them exterminated, claiming they are invasive. I've never subscribed to the idea that you "manage" nature by killing animals. That seems like an arrogant, vicious human response to natural selection.

This slide show features mute swans and their cygnets in 2021. I have watched them at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and Prospect Park, as well as Pelham Bay Park.

*Mute swan, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, September 21, 2019*

*Mute swans, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, April 6, 2019*

*Mute swan and Canada goose, Cunningham Pond, Mt. Loretto, Staten Island, April 2, 2019*

I've done one video of swans so far, The Swans of Prospect Park.

The photos below range from February 2013, when a swan lived at the Meer. That swan has since departed, but she was a very feisty swan (I'm told a female) and I miss her.

We've had some swans at the Reservoir, and often they are a bit far for me to photograph, but I include some below.

The swans of Prospect Park live and breed there, and are a joy to watch. This shot, taken Dec. 4, 2015, is a mama swan with the head of one of her cygnets and the tail of another.