Lakeland’s 44th annual Swan Roundup was held this morning, after a nearly month-long delay because of Hurricane Milton.
It is the first time the city’s annual autumn spectacle has been postponed by a storm, city spokesman Kevin Cook said, despite regularly being held during hurricane season.
The swan roundup is held each fall so Lakeland officials and veterinarians can conduct health examinations for the city-owned flocked, which is scheduled for Wednesday morning. Lakeland’s first pair of mute swans, or white, were received as a gift from the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1957.
Starting at 7 a.m. sharp Tuesday, city crews took to Lake Morton on two motorized boots with one driver and a swan wrangler scooping up swans from the water using wide nets.
More than a few made attempts to evade the boat crews, causing one experienced wrangler, Dustin Collins, to fall into Lake Morton. Collins said he’s been a swan wrangler for about eight years, and it’s a hazard of the job.
“That was sweet revenge,” he said, capturing a small black swan after falling in the lake. “I feel better about it now.”
The swans are put into a series of holding pens on Lake Morton to rest overnight, allowed to destress from the commotion before their examinations.
Fewer feathered friends?
There were 44 swans captured Tuesday morning, Cook said. There were 28 white English mute swans, 15 Australian black swans and only one merle, a rare genetic mutation that appears to produce gray feathers.
This is the lowest number of swans in the city’s flock in roughly a decade. The
Steve Platt, the city’s grounds supervisor for downtown Lakeland and honorary “swanfather,” said there’s been a manmade issue.
Dr. Price Dickson, of My Pet’s Animal Hospital, who oversees the swans’ care, said about one swan per month has been fatally struck by a vehicle over the past year.
One of those lost was Willie, Lakeland’s last remaining black-necked swan. The swan was struck and killed near South Boulevard and Lake Morton drive, the same intersection his prior mate was killed at four years ago.
Despite the tragedy, Willie had continued to nest dangerously close to the intersection with a new mate, Cook said.
“A lot of [the accidents] happen in the evening time,” Platt said. “People need to stay off their phone, pay attention and slow down.”
Checking on the swan’s health
On Wednesday morning, all the city’s swans will receive their annual examination. Dickson said each of the birds will have its weight taken and eyes, ears, nose, mouth and webbed feet checked for any obvious injuries.
“Eye injuries and foot injuries tend to be the most common,” she said.
Each of the swans will be given a dose of ivermectin to ward against potential parasites caught from interactions and shared living with wild birds, Dickson said. Blood samples may be taken from some of the older birds.
The birds each have a microchip that is scanned. This will allow Dickson and others to look up the swan’s medical history to review it for prior conditions and individually review each bird.
Dickson said she has some concerns about the city’s flock in the wake of Milton. While swans are generally “savvy,” she said they take action to protect themselves during inclement weather. She came down to walk around the lake and do a headcount the day following the storm.