Swans of Lakeland

Flapping his wings.

Classic "swan a swimming" pose. I couldn't get seven to swim in a row.

Grey morph of a black swan. Hanging with all of his friends.

Beautiful black swan.

Getting frisky!

This swan had one of his feet growing out of his back. He was only paddling with his right foot. I never saw him out of the water.

This "feeder" came fully prepared with her rubber gloves and bags of bread.

I had always heard of the famous swans that live in the big lake in downtown Lakeland. I finally made it over there this weekend. My husband had some business near there on Saturday morning so I rode over with him and headed to the lake while he was working. At first I just saw a few swans and thought "This is cool". I parked and got out and started taking pictures. Then I noticed across the lake (across the street from the Chamber of Commerce) there was a huge flock of them hanging around. There were also plenty of ibis, egrets, ducks and geese hanging around as well. The swans were friendly but not overly aggressive. The geese are the ones to watch out for. They will chase you down if they think you have food. I was leaning on a tree away from the fowl crowd with my eye to the camera focusing on the ducks in the water when I felt this bang, bang, bang on my tennis shoe. I looked down and this goose was banging on my shoe wanting to be fed. If you go there to walk around in the grass be careful where you walk. All that feeding produces a lot of fowl poop. More on "swan lake" coming in later posts.