Close encounter - Immature Cygnus Olor (Mute Swan) - Fisherman's Wharf, Steveston BC - April 13, 2009.

As I stood on one of the floating docks in Fisherman's Wharf in Steveston, I happened to observe an interesting encounter taking place. The parents of a young child decided to feed a Mute Swan swimming next to them as they stood on the dock. As the feeding became more and more frequent with these folks, the swan became more and more brave, perhaps thinking it was going to be fed out of the goody bag of which the parents were holding. As the parents became bored with feeding, the handouts became less paid attention to and less frequent. At the same time, the young child in the stroller decided to see how close she could get to the swan. At one point, the swan and the child got to within a few inches of each other curiously looking each other in the eye moments before the parents saw the encounter and pulled the child back away from the edge of the dock.

One of the main attractions for visitors to the Steveston Fisherman's Wharf are the local Cygnus Olor (Mute Swans). They can be seen on days that there are enough bird treat possibilities and will often get extremely close with expectations of seeds or hot dog handouts. The Mute Swan is an introduced species from Eurasia. This graceful, ornamental park swan often swims with an S-curve in the neck, wings arched over back, while the black-knobbed, orange bill points down (at the tip). The dingy, white/brown immatures have pinkish-gray beaks. Note the small black dome on the forehead of adults, located at the top of beak.