{"id":51601,"date":"2024-11-05T14:29:51","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T19:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=51601"},"modified":"2024-11-05T14:42:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T19:42:10","slug":"lakelands-44th-swan-roundup-started-at-7-am-on-lake-morton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/11\/05\/lakelands-44th-swan-roundup-started-at-7-am-on-lake-morton\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland&#8217;s 44th Swan Roundup started at 7 am on Lake Morton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lakeland&#8217;s 44th annual Swan Roundup was held this morning, after a nearly month-long delay because of Hurricane Milton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is the first time the city&#8217;s annual autumn spectacle has been postponed by a storm, city spokesman Kevin Cook said, despite regularly being held during hurricane season.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"828679\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #828679;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"433\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/swan-115.webp?resize=660%2C433&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-51602 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/swan-115.webp?w=660&amp;ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/swan-115.webp?resize=300%2C197&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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&#8217;s first pair of mute swans, or white, were received as a gift from the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1957.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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&#8217;s been a swan wrangler for about eight years, and it&#8217;s a hazard of the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?height=476&#038;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FLakelandGov%2Fvideos%2F440892019047946%2F&#038;show_text=false&#038;width=267&#038;t=0\" width=\"267\" height=\"476\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowFullScreen=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;That was sweet revenge,&#8221; he said, capturing a small black swan after falling in the lake. &#8220;I feel better about it now.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fewer feathered friends?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the lowest number of swans in the city&#8217;s flock in roughly a decade. The<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Steve Platt, the city&#8217;s grounds supervisor for downtown Lakeland and&nbsp;honorary &#8220;swanfather,&#8221;&nbsp;said there&#8217;s been a manmade issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Price Dickson, of My Pet&#8217;s Animal Hospital, who oversees the swans&#8217; care, said about one swan per month has been fatally struck by a vehicle over the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of those lost was Willie, Lakeland&#8217;s last remaining black-necked swan. The swan was struck and killed near South Boulevard and Lake Morton drive,&nbsp;the same intersection his prior mate was killed at four years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the tragedy, Willie had continued to nest dangerously close to the intersection with a new mate, Cook said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;A lot of [the accidents] happen in the evening time,&#8221; Platt said. &#8220;People need to stay off their phone, pay attention and slow down.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Checking on the swan&#8217;s health<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Wednesday morning, all the city&#8217;s swans will receive their annual examination.&nbsp;Dickson&nbsp;said each of the birds will have its weight taken and eyes, ears, nose, mouth and webbed feet checked for any obvious injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Eye injuries and foot injuries tend to be the most common,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The birds each have a microchip that is scanned. This will allow Dickson and others to look up the swan&#8217;s medical history to review it for prior conditions and individually review each bird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dickson said she has some concerns about the city&#8217;s flock in the wake of Milton. While swans are generally &#8220;savvy,&#8221; 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lakeland&#8217;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&#8217;s annual autumn spectacle has been&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":51602,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/swan-115.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[10243],"class_list":["post-51601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-lakelands-44th-swan-roundup-started-at-7-am-on-lake-morton"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51601"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51604,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51601\/revisions\/51604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}