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Swan Attack!

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Anonymous

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So, as far as I know, it's a widely accepted fact that a swan can break a man's arm with a buffet of its mighty wings when angered. However, when was the last time anyone saw a report of someone being so injured in a 'man vs. swan' conflict? Where has this image of the power of a flustered swan come from? Was there some unfortunate soul somewhen along the line who was really crippled by a swan onslaught? Just wondering...
 
I have no accounts of Swan vs. Man but it is well known that swans are aggresive towards other animals especially other waterfowl. Many people don't like them because they can bully out every other bird in the pond or lake.

My sister worked at a wildlife refuge where they had huge cranes, now those were some big birds(about 4'), very capable of dealing a serious wound with their beaks. They had to wear diving goggles whenever they were in the pens because the birds had a history of going for your EYES!
 
A swan once tried to eat my foot. In hindsight, it was actually pretty funny.
 
don't trust those swans...

english.pravda.ru/accidents/2001/05/28/6155.html
Link is dead. The cited article refers to the same incident described below. It's essentially a duplicate, not a different story.

* Swan victim Mary Ryan, 71, has lost her $32,600 negligence claim against authorities over an incident in which one of the birds knocked her to the ground in Phoenix Park in central Dublin, Ireland. She testified that she had just fed the swan and was walking away when she heard a great flapping of wings and was knocked down, suffering a broken wrist. "Ryan said park commissioners should have put up signs warning the public about 'the mischievous propensity and uncertain temperament'" of the birds, but Judge Kevin Haugh ruled that evidence had not established that the park's swans were menacing in general, although the one in question had concededly been having "a very bad day." (Reuters/Excite, May 25).

Found the above while looking for the story i read in a newspaper a year or two back about a woman who was knocked over and had an arm broken by a person dressed in a swan costume...
:rolleyes:
 
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Rather than "swan versus man" I think that to be more accurate it would be more like "swan versus child".

I was bought up by the sea and the swans on the mill-pond were a source of joy and beauty. However, get too close ( especially when they have cygnets) and you find out just how aggressive they can be. When I was a child one went for me (I think that very child that lived in my village can say this!) . It was entirely my fault- they look so cuddly and serene and so damn huggable . They can move pretty fast and reach pretty far with their necks, and with their enormous wings flapping and the hissing, it can be bloody scarey.

Obviously, you learn quickly from this and it never happens again.
:rolleyes:

Although I've never heard of someone's leg being broken by a swan I can understand how such tales come about. And quite frankly if you're stupid enough to take on a swan you deserve all you get. (It's very early and I'm not feeling very sympathetic.:D )
 
101 said:
So, as far as I know, it's a widely accepted fact that a swan can break a man's arm with a buffet of its mighty wings when angered
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I've just read that over. Have I got the right spelling of buffet there? Just to clarify, I mean when a swan belts you while flapping about, not when it serves up its wings with a selection of cold meats, peanuts, coleslaw and those cheese-and-pineapple-on-a-stick doofads. Though that might be deadly in itself...
 
Especially to the blood-sucking undead - you just need a a lot of garlic and some stake and you have Buffet the Vampire Slayer.

Hmmmm.

Swans are very big - isn't the Mute Swan the largest british bird? I can imagine that they could knock someone to the ground, which could result in broken limbs if they were unlucky, but I have never heard of it happening. Personally I like to try to extend that legend to ducks in general, but people are rarely convinced.
 
A swan once ran up to me and took a sandwich I was eating right out my hand.
I did not have time to react, but if i had, I got the feeling that it would have persued the matter until it got what it wanted.
 
joester said:
A swan once ran up to me...
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:rofl:


I'm not pouring doubt on this incident - I can well imagine that one of those plucky beggars may have snatched your snack - but I honestly can't picture a bottom-heavy waterfowl with a five foot wingspan and a pesiosaur-like neck running anywhere. In fact, when I try to imagine such a sight, the image is one of the funnier ones to have crossed my mind today.
It's ok. You will loose no face in front of me by admitting that a swan stole your food having waddled up to you. Maybe it even sidled up in an attempt to pilfer the sarnie by subterfuge... Indeed, if you did want to make the experience a little more scary and action-packed, you could bend the truth of the events and say he swooped down upon you.
 
Ok, I'm not saying the bastard had trainers on or anything.
For 'ran' please inserst 'waddled at speed'.
 
joester said:
Ok, I'm not saying the bastard had trainers on or anything.
For 'ran' please inserst 'waddled at speed'.
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He-he-he! Sorry. I quite like the 'running' idea now that I've got used to it...
 
It's No Gaggle
By Sea Dreamer

MAY 3, 2002

A woman from Birmingham, England, today proved for the first time in known history that it is possible to have your arm broken by the wing of a swan.

Ms F. O'Tunate (29), of Raddlebarn Farm Drive, Bournville was recovering at home today, following her run-in with a particularly vicious bird while strolling down the canal towpath near Cadbury World last night.

"It was a terrible experience!", she told press at a conference outside her house this afternoon. "I feed the ducks and swans every day and never once have they turned on me. I guess I've got them used to the high life of supermarket's finest bread, and they didn't take too kindly to the cheap loaf I picked up from the corner shop on my way to the waterway."

Only last week, the Birmingham Police Force mentioned a growing concern regarding the bird life of the city, and stressed continued concern for the protection of local dog walkers. In a follow-up to this latest incident, PC Yur Nikked said, "People should be vigilant at all times. We are trying to apprehend the local menace, but leads are growing thin. Our latest sighting of the offending bird was in the Selly Oak area at 6 AM this morning, but by the time we'd got there, it had gone. The bird was seen to be draped in laurel leaves bound with fishing twine, and is thought to be highly dangerous, so do not attempt to approach it."

When pressed as to whether the swan could be considered a national threat, PC Nikked left the crowd abruptly. However, an anonymous independent expert gave his thoughts on the subject, "By the look of the adornments, this swan has appeared to have achieved the highest ranking known to any feathered beast. Spurred on by its current victory, it will be looking for its next victim. The bird is fit and healthy and obviously has a lust for violence. Who knows where this will end..."

Named by some as the unluckiest woman in the world, Ms O'Tunate wound up the conference by reminding everyone to heed the warnings your mother gives you as a child. "If you ever thought that a swan's ability to break bones was an old wives tale, just remember me! I'm not old, and I'm no wife neither..."
 
With one blow of a mans foot you can break a swans wing.........heaviest bird that can still actually fly.......rest is b*llocks.......I've picked one up, struggling and wriggling (swan not me !) they are strong but not that strong........birds also have very hollow bones so not a lot of strenght there.
 
There was a locally famous swan living on a village pond near here about 60 years ago. That area is now named after it. 'Joey the Swan' is incidentally an accident blackspot and considered generally an 'unlucky' area.

My ma was bitten on the hand by Joey as a young child. Presumably it believed she wasn't parting with a breadcrust fast enough. The wound went septic and she was lucky not to lose her hand or the use of it, it seems.
 
Just to keep the swan violence theme going for a bit, i think i remember reading somewhere before that you can still be executed for killing and eating one of the queens swans, presumably if its true its some old by-law from a long time ago that's gotten over-looked. Does anyone know if this is true, an old wives tale or a product of my overactive imagination from dining on to much swan :)

Oh there was also a few funny rumours going around our town about recently arrived foreign nationals who were catching and killing swans for consumption on the local lakes. Rumours of pieces of swan being found in the fridges of the local chinese takeaways were rife for a long time. I don't believe a word of it of course but has any one else heard of either of these rumours.
 
i have been bitten by a swan i was feeding, the ungrateful bastard. they are horrible creatures, as are geese (see below).

re. swan-eating: when i was in halls of residence a story was doing the rounds that chris tarrant had been to our uni and lived in our hall, and had killed and eaten one of the hundreds of geese that live on the lake there. if i met the man i would shake his hand, but apparently upon landing on the lake the geese become property of the university and killing one is an offence for which you can be evicted.
 
Feen said:
Just to keep the swan violence theme going for a bit, i think i remember reading somewhere before that you can still be executed for killing and eating one of the queens swans, presumably if its true its some old by-law from a long time ago that's gotten over-looked. Does anyone know if this is true, an old wives tale or a product of my overactive imagination from dining on to much swan :)
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Swan Upping
This encyclopedia site gives a brief intro to the whole royal swan thing, with some good links. In fact, it seems to mostly apply to swans on the Thames, who are 'owned' by either the monarch, the Vintners' Company or the Dyers' Company. They still do it to this day, as I saw it on TV a couple of years ago (BBC Countryfile or somesuch),and they wear Tudor style outfits while their about it. Must be hilarious! I wonder if anyone has broken anything during the Upping?
 
Thanks for all this info - sorry i didn't see the previous thread about the refugee's eating swans i'm only a newish poster and havn't gotten through a lot of the old threads to find the interesting ones (of course i mean the ones of interest to me i know every thread will be of interest to someone), as for the swan upping i seem to remember (very vaguely) that countryside programme to and i have to admit it looks a bit of a laugh though those medival tights look just a little to uncomfortable to be swaning around in :)
 
StellaBoulton said:
Swan Upping
This encyclopedia site gives a brief intro to the whole royal swan thing, with some good links. In fact, it seems to mostly apply to swans on the Thames, who are 'owned' by either the monarch, the Vintners' Company or the Dyers' Company. They still do it to this day, as I saw it on TV a couple of years ago (BBC Countryfile or somesuch),and they wear Tudor style outfits while their about it. Must be hilarious! I wonder if anyone has broken anything during the Upping?
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You'd have thought that this would be something that the British would keep quiet and not broadcast to the world, like morris dancing, or June Sarpong. However, Swan Upping is still a hell of a big event for some people...

http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page384.asp

Further evidence of the sophisticated, 21st century democracy we live in...:rolleyes:
 
What in the name of humanity is "June Sarpong"? Leave morris dancing alone - just because these fellers like dancing and waving handkerchiefs at each other, doesn't mean they're a threat to world security! It's a great excuse at a village pub for a booze-up!

Many quaint customs are preserved in the UK in the sacred cause of "tradition" but should be consigned to the dustbin of history. However, some customs are harmless and mildly entertaining and, therefore, too trivial to matter enough to eradicate.
 
There's a pub near here called 'The Swan With Two Necks' which has a sign featuring a Fortean-looking two-necked (and thus two-headed) swan. A swan with two nicks on its beak belonged to the the Worshipful Company of Vintners.

As a child I used to wonder why the pub was called after the swans' necks rather than their heads, until it was explained to me. :)
 
escargot said:
There's a pub near here called 'The Swan With Two Necks' which has a sign featuring a Fortean-looking two-necked (and thus two-headed) swan. A swan with two nicks on its beak belonged to the the Worshipful Company of Vintners.

As a child I used to wonder why the pub was called after the swans' necks rather than their heads, until it was explained to me. :)
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Not the one in Worcester? If so, and if you frequent it, we may will have been in each other's presence.
 
Nope Slyth M8, it's in Nantwich, Cheshire. The name has been used for quite a lot of pubs, or so I read on the the Swan-Upping site.
 
why is the pub named after the necks of the swans and not the heads? :confused:
 
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