I thought you'd especially appreciate our Adventure Du Jour, which involved a tour of the American Canyon Wetlands. You know the park -- it's the former landfill-turned-park on the west side of American Canyon, bordering the Napa River.
We brought you a picture of your friends:
Not the greatest picture, except that it shows almost the whole family of these guys:
As you probably know, these Mute Swans are fairly unusual out here on the West coast. All the Mute Swans in the country originally busted out of oppression in zoos or private collections, and they started establishing breeding populations in the 1800s (truthy fact -- groups of swans are called "communes"). Since the 1970s, their population has started to grow quickly; these birds in American Canyon started as a pair a few years ago, and now the family is 8 large.
While they look innocuous, drifting about on the lakes and bays, they're actually very territorial and aggressive--they will kick the ass of your garden variety Mallard--and so are displacing native waterfowl as they expand. So, while they're uncommon today, could they be as common as geese in the not-too-distant future? Should we let nature take its course, or should we intervene and control their growth? More importantly, does Roast Swan taste good?
Another thing we noticed is that several ducks in Colusa and here have started flirting and showing off. We didn't get video, but found this one online that shows what we saw:
We had a number of guy ducks performing the same kinds of dance moves, although the girls they were dancing around seemed to be feigning disinterest. I'm sure you can relate to the reception the guys received.
Hope you're well,
Me
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