When the wind blows, when the rain falls, when the snow piles up, where do the swans go? Do they shiver in nests beneath tall trees?
Do they hide under one another’s’ broad white wings? When the lake freezes over, how do they find food to eat?
Do they depend on the largesse of people to feed them through the long hard New England winter?
As everyone talks about the upcoming storm, I worry about my swans. I hope they will be alright. Where do the swans go to weather a storm?
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Categories: #animals, #Photography, Seasons, Weather
SNOW FALLING WITH PAW PRINTS 
Swans On Our Pond 
Spring is coming … any time now … 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Beautiful pictures!!!
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Thanks:-)
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Now you’ve got me worried about your swans too! Maybe that’s the next challenge…. Where do they go?
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Most of them don’t go anywhere. People do feed them, but even so, when it’s a bad winter, it’s very rough on the birds. They don’t all survive.
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You are right. All water is frozen here right now and people I know are getting photos of them. They nest in the marsh grasses. Nice photos.
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The bird rescue people are very busy this time of year.
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I believe I read that Swans, duck and gulls do hunker down in small ponds or lakes during hurricanes or high wind storms. As to winter and finding food, I really don’t know. Water birds float and go with the waves and stay afloat on the stormy waters.
Great questions. I hope you will find out more about this. Maybe check with a Zoo from online to see if they know. 🙂
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Apparently when the ponds freeze over, they fly down to Long Island where the water doesn’t freeze because it’s brackish. I suspect also that people feed them. Mostly though, they just soldier on.
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I hope … I believe … that people who live on the water put food out for them. They put out food for the deer too and many of the wild turkeys winter in sheds farmers put up for them — one of the reasons the turkeys are completely unafraid of people. A lot of the birds that used to migrate south no longer do. I don’t know if this has to do with global warming or is just a natural relocation of nesting grounds. No one seems sure and the experts don’t agree. But now, birds that flew down to Maryland and Virginia, for example — like the Canada Geese — stay and winter locally. When there’s a bad winter and heavy snow, they do freeze. This is a river valley, so it’s all fresh water which becomes solid ice. Finding food can be difficult. I worry about them. I know a lot of people who have taken in geese, swans and ducks they found stuck in lake and river ice.
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I found this on BIRDS: http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/arts/columns/birdnotes/18097-birds-in-winter-how-do-they-survive.html but not much info on the swans. Did find reference they are able to survive even the coldest of winters because of their feathers, but this, of course, depends on the species. Hope you find some more info, would be interesting to learn.
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Thank you! I scooped it. I can’t be the only person wondering.
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Did you find out the answer?
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No, I have no idea. Before I started to develop an attachment to my flock of swans (is that a trumpet of swans?), I never thought about it. Now I worry about them. I think the Audubon people feed them if the lakes are frozen, but other than that? They don’t migrate, so they winter up here. No idea how they survive in the cold and snow.
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