Mute Swans Of The Farmington River

June 8, 2002

On Thursday, June 6, 2002, the DEP intervened and took over the investigation. The location of the missing cygnets was determined and the cygnets were determined to be in good condition. The DEP is going to move the two cygnets to a rehabilitation center (and may have already) where they will be raised among other orphaned cygnets until they are old enough to release back into the wild. It was estimated by the DEP that it was too risky to return the cygnets to their parents in the wild because sometimes after young animals have been taken from their parents by humans, the parents will kill their young if they are later returned to them. So, as sad as it is that the cygnets will not grow up with their natural parents, it was decided by the DEP that it was in the best interest of the cygnets to be raised in an environment where their safety could be ensured. This decision was made by the DEP and their biologists based on their experiences with this type of situation. The cygnets have been denied the experience and teachings that their parents would have provided them had they not been taken from their parents by humans. This education that wild animals give to their young is essential to the offsprings' chances at survival in the wild. It is a tragedy that the cygnets were ever taken from their parents because this is the point at which their right to this education was violated and taken from them.
The DEP has also evaluated Ulysses' wing condition. Since Ulysses is able to get about the lake and survive in his current condition, the DEP has decided to leave him alone to see if the wing will recover on its own. The DEP is concerned that if the cob is caught, handled, and transferred, that further complications to the wing may be incurred that would make his condition worst. This decision was also made by the DEP and their biologists based on their experiences with this type of situation.
Life on the lake is a lot quieter than before the swan abuse incidents. It appears as though the apartment complex management has prohibited access to the lake by fishermen and apartment residents. Though the lives of the seven cygnets may have been lost or tragically altered, hopefully the future safety of Ulysses, Penelope, and any future offspring may have been protected from further human cruelty.

May 30, 2002

The shoreline of the lake is searched and no cygnets or bodies are found.
Penelope is very upset. She is patrolling around the lake, calling out for her cygnets that are not there to answer her pleas. Penelope is devastated.
Farmington Police are notified that the cygnets are missing.
An eye-witness states that they saw a man taking the cygnets early in the afternoon the previous day.

May 29, 2002

The two remaining cygnets are missing at the night check. They were taken sometime during the day.
The cygnets had been verified to be in good condition and with the pen in the morning.

May 27, 2002

Ulysses, Penelope, and their two cygnets are quietly resting on the lake.
www.FarmingtonSwans.org is established and the internet domain is registered.
www.FarmingtonSwans.org website is developed and goes online.

May 24, 2002

One of the cygets is found dead twenty feet behing the nest. The cygnet had blood running out of its nose and no apparent teeth marks or other wounds. A plastic bag was found two feet from the dead cygnet on top of the low-lying brush. Further down the trail, another plastic bag was found next to shells from one of the swan eggs. The corpse of the cygnet is planned to be sent to a veterinarian for an autopsy.
The male swan has discoloring on his good (right) wing, apparently blood stains from fighting off the invader.
The family of swans did not go near the nest during the day. There were large piles of feces in and around the nest. Three large piles of feces were found that looked larger than what the swans usually produce. One was in the nest, one next to the nest and one near the nest. The feces are going to be sent to a lab to determine what species they came from.
The US Fish And Wildlife agency is notified of the potential federal crimes and opens an investigation.
Upon seeing me, the female came over to me with the cygnets and they all came up on shore in front of me. They all immediately fell asleep as though they have all been on the water for a long time. The family is obviously shaken from the invasion of the nest.
The Farmington Valley Swan Fund is officially registered with the Town of Farmington as a non-profit organization. The federal tax id is pending.
Later in the day, the Farmington Animal Control Officer visited the area where the dead cygnet had been found. The clues to the killed cygnet are perplexing, but death by a natural predator has not been ruled out at this point. The cygnet has what appears to possibly be head trauma. We are speculating from the blood coming out of the nostrils that a broken neck is among the causes of death, though this could be from a natural predator. The results from the lab tests and autopsy should help to shed some light on the events surrounding the cygnet's death.

May 23, 2002

The Farmington Valley Swan Fund is born to receive and direct funds to help save Ulysses, Penelope, and their cygnets.
Work begins on the new website for the Farmington Valley Swan Fund.
E-mail circulation requesting help in the form of petitions and contributions is initiated.
The US Fish And Wildlife agency are informed of the egg poaching and swan abuse. Poaching eggs of birds that are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act is a federal offense.

May 22, 2002

Police are closing in on the suspect(s).
The management of Lakeview Apartments is reportedly planning the construction of a fence that blocks access from the apartment complex to the entire inlet where the swans are nesting.
International wildlife organization Friends Of Animals steps in and offers active support.
The cob's leg condition is improving and the swans are proudly displaying their offspring as they forge for food around the lake.
I am considering setting up a fund to help with the protection of the swans. (Lakeview Swan Trust)
I am considering entering photo contests with my photographs of the swans and donating the money to the swan trust and to help with the expenses of the fencing.
There is still no word or intervention by the Connecticut DEP.

When I first started photographing the mute swans on the Farmington River that are featured in my photo galleries, it was clear that this pair of swans were very special because they were very friendly to humans considering they were wild swans. And, when I was first forming the bond that now exists between me and the family of swans, I could have never guessed the tragedy that would unfold for these swans, Ulysses the cob, Penelope the pen, and their three cygnets whose names are still under consideration.

In early March, the swans moved from the river to their nesting site on a small lake that is near Route 4 in Farmington. The female built a nest on the shore of the lake within a reeded area that was near some apartment buildings. The male began to patrol the shores of the lake for intruders that he perceived to be threats for the nest. The female laid seven eggs in the nest and started incubating the eggs. She sat on the eggs for nearly six weeks before the first one hatched. (The gestation period for swan eggs is 35 days from the day the last egg is laid, and that is when the pen starts incubating the eggs.) During the nesting period, the cob would fly to the edge of the lake whenever an intruder appeared on the shore. The swan would warn the intruders off and would get more aggressive if the intruder did not comply with his requests.

One weekend day in the middle of March, I was sitting on the far shore with the male swan when some children appeared on the far shore near the nest. The children were making a big commotion to attract the male swan, which they did. The male swan flew over to address them and the children ran away up the path. The cob returned to join me for a quiet nap in front of me. The children reappeared and started their disturbance again. The cob flew over to warn them off a second time, and then a third time. Finally, the fourth time, the swan followed the children up the path to the yard. The children started screaming and an adult came into the yard and tried to drive the swan back to the water. The swan made an attack on one of the people in the yard. After yelling at the swan and trying to intimidate the swan failed, the people finally walked away and the swan withdrew to the lake.

A week or two after this, I noticed one day that the swan would no longer fly over to meet me, he would only paddle across the water to meet me. One of his wings was being held a little higher above his back than the other. It was clear that his wing had been injured. The cob was also more subdued in his approach and not as confident.

Then a few weeks later, it was getting close to the due date for the eggs to hatch. I had estimated that the cygnets were due to hatch within a week on that Monday, May 19, 2002 that I went to check the nest. Two of the seven eggs had been poached from the nest. The female was noticeably irritated and despondent. She was very upset that the eggs had been taken from her. I returned the following Thursday to check the female and the nest again. Another egg had been poached from the nest, leaving only four. The following day, I contacted the DEP to try to get some protection for the swans. The DEP did not respond to me that day or over that weekend. Friday night, I went out to check on the nest again. One of the cygnets had already hatched and another was hatching when I got there. I was relieved that some the cygnets had finally hatched before somebody had taken any more eggs. The following morning on Saturday, I returned in cold, rainy weather to check on the cygnets and their parents. It was too cold for any more cygnets to hatch, but fortunately there were still two eggs in the nest. I stayed with them until early afternoon when the weather finally cleared up.

The following morning on Sunday, I returned to the nest to check on the cygnets and eggs once again. Another cygnet had hatched the previous night and the other egg had disappeared. Why would a predator have taken an egg when it could have taken a live chick? Because this was a predator that was only interested in the eggs... a human predator, perhaps?

Well, this chilling realization did not mark the end of the tragedy that was to follow on Sunday. I stayed with the swan family for the entire morning and into the early afternoon photographing and videotaping the family. Then it happened. A man came down the path with a child and another adult making a big commotion. The male was sitting in the nest next to me and the female was returning from the water with the cygnets. The female signalled to the male that he should address the disturbance. The male got up out of the nest and went over to warn the people coming down the path. What happened next is just unbelievable.

The man came to the end of the path with the child in front of him, still making a big disturbance. I got up off the rock that I was sitting on and asked the man to stop talking and told him that the swan would attack if he did not stop talking so loudly. The swan approached and the man ignoring my pleas continued to joke around and taunt the swan. The swan finally reached the limits of his tolerance and went after the child in front of the man. The child was screaming and crying, but the man continued to laugh and was delighted that he had precipitated the attack. He jokingly pointed out to the other adult about how the swan was as mean as he had previously told him. I was frozen with horror. The child ran back up the path and the swan started to address the man.

The swan first warned the man with his posture, holding his chest out and his head back. But, before the swan could attack, the man pivoted on his hip and karate kicked the swan so hard that the swan was lifted off of his feet, flew several yards through the air, and fell back into the water. The swan withdrew into the water, trembling from the pain of the blow. The man quickly snuck back up the path before I had a chance to confront him and disappeared into the apartments.

The cob was seriously injured. He could no longer walk on one of his legs that he kept tucked under his wing. He only extended one leg to paddle himself through the water. The cob was very distraught and was afraid to even approach me after the blow. But, he eventually came over to me again and hung his head in apparent pain.

The cob continued to have problems with the injury to his leg or chest into that night and the following day. He would not extend the leg or walk on it and was confined to the water because of this. This placed the entire family in danger, because the male could not fight off intruders and the female had not eaten very much since she had been sitting on the nest for so long. Once the cygnets hatch, the male will sit on the nest and watch them while the female goes off and feeds to restore her strength from the long incubation period. But, now the male could not go to the nest which means that the female could not get off the nest, feed, recover her strength, and have a mental break from the cygnets.

Two days later, thankfully, the male was able to use both of his legs to some extent. He was paddling with both feet and walking on the shore again. But, he still could not fly from the previous injury.

If you have any information about the man who kicked the cob or if you know anything about the swan eggs that were poached or if you know anything about the previous swan beatings or any new swan abuse, please contact the Animal Control Unit of the Farmington Police Department at (860) 675-2440.