Has any kayaker/canoeist ever been badly hurt by a swan?

[scottdog007]

Yesterday I was in my Jackson getting some exercise and trying out strokes as you do, on the canal close to my canoe club. There are a pair of swans with a nest in a garden, and the male has been massively protective, and attacking the boats as they go past. Well the babies are now born, there were 6 but now 4 and these feather flappers are even nastier than ever.

Thursday evening the club had a race in their marathon boats up and down this stretch of water, and one of the favorites to win went over in his boat avoiding a frenzied attack from the male swan. And 5 minutes later I had to come by returning to the club house. The signets were sitting on the bank, and I passed on the opposite bank, the swans waited until I had passed and they attacked me from behind. A wing came out and hit my paddle out of one hand. It then thumped the back of my boat so very hard that is made an amazingly load noise, it came for me again and I am sure the wing would have caught me across the back of my head but I deflected it with my paddle. His mate was coming from the other side, and I then started waving the paddle with one hand and then splashing them with water.

I was shocked how quickly it all happened. I’m just curious to see if anyone has been badly hurt.

[frostie]

Crossbows solve many problems, including swans.

[Mission]

Yea swans can be pretty nasty. Ive been chased a few times while training but never actually hurt by them.
Its best just to keep a very very wide berth, particularly when cygnets are involved.

[Tom_Laws]

They can break a man's arm you know.

[Adrian Shanahan]

They can break a man's arm you know.

Classic....

But apparently they are not immune to the effects of a menacing swing of a carbon/kevlar blade.

[Voodoo]

I have had one take off heading straight for me, at an altitude of about 6' it opened its bomb bay doors and dropped its payload on me from the bow to the stern of the boat and everything in between,

Not the most pleasant of experiences but better than having my arm broke

[WideBoy]

Swans can be angry beasts. There's one on the loch where I wakeboard. We tow with a 20 odd ft speedboat with a 300bhp engine, so it's big, fast and fairly loud. However the local swan has no fear and sometimes flies after us, let alone the guy in the kayak!

[Adrian Cooper]

Swans don't get angry, they get determined. They cannot rationalise the presence and potential threat so deal with it as they see fit.

Frostie, cross deck strokes are of little use.

[John Kennedy]

There's one that tries to bully us away fairly regularly, and it worked too on a few occasions until we literally stood our ground, and didn't turn tail and paddle away. It'd see we'd called its bluff, and it's stop, and retreat a bit, hissing at us. But he'd get within a paddle length before stopping and backing off.

[Paul L]

A Swan Get a grip of yourselves theres young lads in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and you lot are worried about a swan .Lol Mind you someone did say it hissed at them I suppose that could be quite worrying

[John Kennedy]

Aye, good point. The swans over there are a lot worse, we should count ourselves lucky that we don't come up against swans who have to wear beards longer than a hand, or count women as second class citizens.

[rwalks]

Just a little...
While training for the Devizes- Westminster, "Saddam" who lived just outside Devizes would regularly attack! One tactic is to go pass as a group and try really hard not to be the boat at the back! Worst I ever got was a beaked shapped bruise on my shoulder and a ringing in my ears tho.
Should perhaps mention I heard a rumour of a 50 quid fine if you get caught smacking him with a paddle... Self-defence?

[chud]

Or you could stop willfully disturbing wild animals?

[Mission]

Id hardly call a swan taking off from the other side of the river and attacking someone disturbing it!
Ive never wilfully disturbed a swan, more it has disturbed me. Do I not have the right to share the river too. :D

[chud]

Depends how big the river is. Though pretty much by definition, if they attack you, then you have disturbed them. I'd say organising a race past a nesting pair known to be aggressively territorial would be disturbing them.

[boom]

I love the it that you splashed a swan with water to scare it off!!! That must have really pissed it off!!! Quality!

[newkid]

was it this one?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... owers.html

Phil

[Tom_Laws]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koU01Ah_MrY

About two foot tall, long slender neck....

[Kayak-Bloke]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koU01Ah_MrY

About two foot tall, long slender neck....

Very funny bit from the last Adrian Mole book...

All way through visitors to his flat (by the canal) are warned; "they can break a man's arm you know..?"
Eventually a visitor suffers a broken arm.
"What happened?" Some one asks. "He slipped on some swan shit", comes the reply....

[YvonneB]

Having met with the notorious son of Saddam near Devizes, I can say with certainty that no amount of splashing shouting or waving paddles will have any effect. However he did not physically attack. Following that exerience ( he spotted me from about 300m and flew straight at me at head height then pursued me down the canal) - another I time I would just keep paddling. Once you are out of his territory he will give up. It's very individual from swan to swan, and others seem to get used to people and are quite happy for you to padddle past their nest. On a full length paddle of thames last year in June we had no trouble whatsover.

Apparently the monks at Abbotsbury selectively bred their swans for good temperament. Perhpas we could ask British Waterways to do the same.

It may be the fact you were racing and therfore splashing that made things worse. Birds tend to make a lot of splashing when they attach each other, so if you paddle past quietly with no splashing I find it doesnt wind them up so much. Mind you, a really stroppy swan will I suspect be stroppy no matter what.

[Adie H]

We have a large cob where I work he is a big angry aggressive bird. But once caught (and I have caught him a few times to remove fishing tackle from him) he is putty in your arms. It’s an old wives tail that a swan can break arms I'd be more wary of a male goose if I were you. Stand your ground and they’ll back down first.

[Mission]

I'd be more wary of a male goose if I were you. Stand your ground and they’ll back down first.

Now that I have been attacked by!
A friend keeps a few instead of a guard dog. Very Very effective and will attack anything that comes near the house!

[edhunter]

The most agressive bird ive been atacked by was a chicken. It managed to put alot of holes in my shins with its claws it was a complete little psycopath.

[TomWardill]

Next time you're explaining your views on access....

Remember this:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,627139,00.html

[guy]

Remember this:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,627139,00.html[/quote]


Being beaten up with a swan is not the same as being beaten up by a swan.

Any way he wasn't a kayaker.


A friend of mine was burned when he tried to spit roast a swan. Almost a greasy as a goose apparently...

[Slartibartfast]

Being beaten up with a swan is not the same as being beaten up by a swan.

Any way he wasn't a kayaker.


A friend of mine was burned when he tried to spit roast a swan. Almost a greasy as a goose apparently...

Did you ask the Queen first? It's treason if not, and that is punishable BY DEATH!

Still, I am sure you did, so you will be OK admitting this on an open forum watched by MI5..

[Small feet]

We have a lot of problems with Swans at our club. It wasn't much of a problem until about 4 years ago so I guess its due to the fact there are so many around now.

A number of our paddlers have been attacked and they can badly scare our beginners. We noticed that there are some paddlers who always have problem yet others never do. So we did some testing on how swans respond to us.

If one paddler calmly moves towards an aggressively swan, this tends to make it back down. If we are in a group, the swan will try to more around the paddler to get to someone else in the group.

If more than one paddler moves towards the swan, it seems to calm down completly and move off.

If we ignore the swan, it gets more aggressive and will eventually attack someone. This is definitly made worse by turning your back on them.

It comes down to the fact that swans are bullies, if you face them they back down but turn your back they feel brave and will have a go.

A couple of weeks ago our local nutter swap found me when I was on my own. You know what its like, he see's you from miles away and takes off and lands as close as he can, even hit you if its from behind, then constantly hassles you. I did the 'be brave move towards him thing' and it worked like a dream but he would not give up. Every time I turned around to get away he got puffed up again and came back at me. Eventually I decide to paddle away backwards. Not very brave but is certainly stopped his aggression. Eventually I got far enough away for him to do another flying attack but as I was facing him I tried paddling hard at him. He veered off and dropped like a stone and was all calm again. That ended the battle for that day.

It seems to me that if we behave like swans when they move towards us they recognise what we are doing and back down. But if we behave like ducks they chase us.

I know the face off approach is no good for race trainers but is there any scope in clubs tackling a difficult local swans so they start to respond the way we want when they see kayakers? We are doing that now but not everyone is in on this as it sounds unlikely to work until you have tried. Those who keep on running are still having problems while our begginer groups are doing much better as the instructor have all had to deal with the situation.

[Kev W]

I got attacked by a swan om the canal at Stone last year. The swan came at my friends open which had his two children in it. Being in a kayak I placed myself in the way and like "small feet" says, it tried to get around me. Eventually we must have paddled for 1/2 a mile with me paddling backwards and constantly stopping it from getting around me. I also stopped and "faced it off" several times. Eventually it came straight at me but my trusty "Robson Oracle" saved the day, unbelievably the swan then attached again within a minute and met with the other side of my "Robson Oracles", only then did it finally leave us alone. Its worth noting that before he attacked he sunk his neck back into his body which made him look very odd, Ive never seen a swan do this before but then again Ive never been attacked before!

I think you get the odd "nutter" swan as Ive passed loads without any problems, once even passing a bunch of 13 of them. My mate was aware of the "nutter swan" as he lives nearby and apparently it has attacked people on the towpath, he had however though (or hoped) that a swan that had recently died after hitting power lines was the "nutter" ............ sadly he was wrong!

[Wildswimmer Pete]

They can break a man's arm you know.

Sorry Tom, that is an urban myth.

I love the it that you splashed a swan with water to scare it off!!! That must have really pissed it off!!! Quality!

Yes, that is the correct way to deter a swan attack, at least for swimmers.

There is one very good way to bring out the best in a swan: feed it. We have resident swans on Hatchmere and they are totally laid back. Last week the two of them just came ashore at the little bay, plonked themselves down amongst all the sunbathers then promptly went to sleep. They are quite intelligent creatures and do recognise people. The old cob at Hatchmere, Daniel (now sadly deceased) would let me feed the cygnets from my hands - as long as I was in my swimming trunks. Anyone else approaching got a damn good hissing at.

Feed brown bread rather than white, and one thing "my" swans really love is cooked diced bacon fat (they are omnivorous as they take insects, fish and small creatures).

Madswimmer Pete

[Chaucer]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... -zone.html