Ugly Duckling Not

I’ve been looking for swans around Aberdeen, and whilst I’ve seen them. Being in a position to park, and take a picture had been a non-starter.

Today was a trip to Aboyne for lunch and some window-shopping.

I was able to turn off the A93 and drive into a spot near the Aboyne Loch Golf Centre, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire. And take this shot, not the best but one to improve on.

There are more Swans by the caravan site, but again no access point or area to park in within walking distance.

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) and Polish Mute Swan (Cygnus immutabilis) These are the most common swan seen on our urban lakes and in Europe.

Mute Swan;

Description: The adults are completely white, but the head can be stained rusty from feeding in acidic waters. The bill is orange-red with black nail, cutting edge, bill-base, nostril, and fleshly frontal knob. Legs and feet black, but remain pink on ‘Polish’ birds. The Juvenile: bill lacks frontal knob, pinkish-grey, with black areas as adult becoming pinker during first winter and attaining adult shape and colour by second winter. Legs and feet grey or pinkish-grey on the Polish swan.

Field Identification:
Length 125-155 cm (50-61in).
The males are usually larger than females.

Habits: We find this swan on most of our lakes, rivers and ponds, both in open country and about towns and cities. They are generally tame, but wild birds (in Asia) are wary and unapproachable. It has long been domesticated particularly in Britain, where its history dates back to the twelfth century; also domesticated by the Greeks and Romans. Normally strongly territorial in the breeding season, driving most other wildfowl from the vicinity of nest, but in some places large numbers breed in close proximity to each other, as at Abbotsbury, Dorset, in England.

Feeds primarily by reaching below surface with long neck, frequently upending, but will also dabble and graze on the land like other swans of the Northern hemisphere.
Habitat: Favours lowland freshwater lakes, pools, and reservoirs, gravel-pits, rivers and park-lakes. Also on estuaries, coastal brackish lagoons and even in sheltered coastal bays.

Population: European population increasing with local introductions continuing, though in parts of Britain species has shown serious decline recently, mainly caused by poisoning from swallowing anglers’ discarded lead weights.

Polish Mute Swan

The polish mute swan is a ‘pure white’ version of a mute swan. The legs and feet are a pinkish-grey colour instead of the usual black colour.

A pigment deficiency of a gene in the sex chromosomes is what causes the whiteness.
When a female mute swan inherits only one melanin-deficient chromosome she will be a polish swan, whereas the male of the same parents will be normal. If the next generation is produced by two of their offspring the brood will contain numbers of both polish and normal cygnets of either sex.

Polish swans were given their name when they were imported from the Polish coast on the Baltic sea into London around about 1800. Mistakenly thought to be a new species they were given the name ‘Cygnus immutabilis’ (changeless swan).

Polish swans are not a different species of swan, because they are mute swans.