Archives for May 15th, 2007

Swans near the Carinthian Bridge. Not pictured: The Sword of Damocles above them.

A few weeks ago, two swans left the calm, muddy waters of the Drava River to build their nest and await the arrival of their bevy of cygnets¹. They both worked hard over a period of 48 hours but because their nest is adjacent to a popular river promenade, they were regularly interrupted by gawking pedestrians and beserker dogs. I personally saw the male, or “cob”, fight off (although the better word would be “hiss off”) three dogs, one lady, and a small child. (Not simultaneously… but it was still pretty damn impressive.)

Most of the river birds in this area were “disappeared” following the bird flu outbreak, so these two have probably seen worse. In fact, it’s a bit of a surprise that they’re here at all. But they’re survivors, they ain’t gonna give up, they ain’t gonna stop. And for the past few weeks, they’ve been sitting on their four eggs while the weather went nuts around them, never giving an inch.

But tonight comes the biggest challenge of their lives: Lampijončki. It’s a festival of drunken student mayhem, and their nest happens to be on the primary route to get there. Not only will hundreds of drunken kids be passing them on the way to the party, hundreds of even-drunker kids will be passing them on the way back to the city. The question is: will the swans live through the night?

Leave your guess in the comments. The factors to guess are:

1) How many swans will be dead tomorrow morning?
——-> Zero/One/Two
2) How many of the eggs will be destroyed?
——-> Zero/One/Two/Three/Four
3) How much damage will be done to the nest?
——-> None/Minor/Major/Total

The winner gets this prize: An original copy of Apocalypse Now Redux on DVD, which is itself a classic commentary on the innate horrors of humanity. We’ll use classic Price is Right rules, which means the person who gets closest without going over wins. I’ll report on their condition tomorrow. I’ll be rooting for them.

1. I learned this word while studying for the SAT, never thinking that I would ever be able to use it. This will probably be the last time I can ever employ it, so forgive me. That said, I still don’t know if “bevy” is the right word for a flock of swans. Frankly, I’m too damn excited about being able to use “cygnet” to check. [back]