By Richard B. Primack
“It is true, nothing could originally demand our respect, which was not, at the same time, capable, in a greater or less degree, of exciting our fear, but this does not prove fear to be the source of that respect.” Henry David Thoreau in his Early Essays and Miscellanies.
My son Dan and I had a remarkable encounter with an extremely angry and protective swan while kayaking on the Charles River two weeks ago. As we rounded a bend in the river in Dedham, we observed a family of swans, consisting of two adults and three babies. We kept to the opposite bank of the river to keep as far from them as possible. Despite this, the bigger adult swan, presumably the male, swam aggressively towards us with its wings raised up.
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| Photo 1: Angry swan with wings raised. Optic Mag |
For about 10 minutes, the angry swan kept trying to get very close to us from behind, presumably to peck us and scare us off. We faced our kayaks toward the swan, and also used our paddles to keep it at a distance of six feet away. The swan continued this aggressive behavior even as the current took us 50 yards from the babies. There was a slightly humorous quality to the encounter, but it was also surprisingly tense as the swam seemed intent on doing us harm.
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| Photo 2: Angry swan flying to attack. RealMantis |
Finally, the swan flew back to its family, and we laughed out loud in relief, thinking that the strange incident was finished. But a few minutes later, the swan flew back to us, even though we were now more than 100 yards away from the family and paddling in the opposite direction. The swan proceeded to confront us for another five minutes, again trying to get behind us. We were relieved when the swan finally flew back to its family.
We did not take any photos or videos of this swan, as we were so concerned about our safety during the episode. But here are videos of other swan encounters:
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