A psycho swan has been seen bullying other birds and killing goslings on the Thames at Abingdon. On Sunday morning I was shown evidence from a phone video of the swan holding goslings under the water, and scaring off the older geese who came near to try to help.
Then today I saw a swan, presumably the same one, attach some birds. The pictures show the chase,
and then the swan having pushed one of the other birds under the water. It reappeared somewhere else.
The swan did not appear to have young nearby.
It’s not really a psycho swan, it is just a swan being a swan. Swans are notoriously territorial birds, and aggressive with other birds and humans alike. People think that because they are graceful and serene they are nice temperamentally. Not really.
I was sitting in the garden of the Nags Head a year or so ago and watched 2 swans attack and kill about 10 goslings in a couple of minutes, by strangling them beneath the water. I attributed the attack to the fact that the swans were being routinely fed in this location at the time, by a local resident, and were doing what they felt was needed to guard their ready made supply of food.
Nature red in tooth and claw.
Abbey park Leicester today. A lone swan was attacking a small adult canadian goose. I think was adult. Rest 9f the canada geese were on the land but the swan and attacked goose were in the lake. The poor scared goose was trying to jump up onto the concrete bank but it was too high. In the end I could predict it would be drowned so as it tried to jump out I grabbed its long neck and pulled it onto land.
I had spike to a dog Walker last year said a swan was seen to kill baby swans a few years running. I could not see any babies or nest the swan may have been defending.