{"id":8709,"date":"2021-03-01T12:50:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T17:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=8709"},"modified":"2021-03-01T12:50:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T17:50:06","slug":"swan-nesting-season-around-lake-mortonmotorist-be-vigilant-and-pay-attention-to-the-posted-20mph-speed-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2021\/03\/01\/swan-nesting-season-around-lake-mortonmotorist-be-vigilant-and-pay-attention-to-the-posted-20mph-speed-limit\/","title":{"rendered":"SWAN NESTING SEASON AROUND LAKE MORTONMOTORIST BE VIGILANT AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE POSTED 20MPH SPEED LIMIT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Swan Nesting Season is upon us in Lakeland, and we have a very rare occurrence on Lake Morton. The lone male Black Neck Swan that lost his mate during nesting season last year has wooed a new mate. This is very rare among swans to not only find a new mate, but also couple with a bird that is not the exact same species.  Our Black Neck Swan is in the nest-building process with a White Mute Swan. Unfortunately, they have built a nest in the exact same spot where his previous mate was killed, located across the street from the lake at the corner of South Boulevard and Lake Morton Drive.  We want to remind those travelling around Lake Morton to pay close attention to the posted 20 mph speed limit and to be vigilant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be posted signage and display boards notifying motorists that it is swan nesting season and to pay attention.  Steve Platt, Grounds Maintenance Supervisor for the City\u2019s Parks & Recreation Department said, \u201cMany of the Lake Morton swans move into the South Lake Morton neighborhood to nest.  The swans do this to find unused nesting locations with shrubs and other features that they use as cover.\u201d  Platt is also known locally as the Swanfather because he and his crew have been caring for Lakeland\u2019s iconic swans for decades.  Platt added,  \u201cThe swans nesting in the neighborhood have to waddle their way to the lake for water and food so this makes them very vulnerable when travelling across the busy roadway.  Once a female swan lays its eggs, it is roughly a 40-day time period before the eggs start to hatch. So, its back and forth to the nest and to the lake for at least 40-days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland\u2019s current swan population have ties to Queen Elizabeth\u2019s Royal Flock. In the early 1950\u2019s a Lakeland resident residing in England wrote a letter to the Queen of England asking her highness if she would be so kind and donate a pair of swans to the City of Lakeland. Queen Elizabeth II replied to the request sending notice that two royal swans from her flock would be donated to the Lakeland community. The birds arrived in Lakeland on February 7, 1957 and were safely placed on Lake Morton.  The rest is history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Lakeland was incorporated in January 1885 and has grown to become one of the largest inland communities in Florida.\u00a0 With a current population of over 100,000, Lakeland continues to grow, capitalizing on its ideal central Florida location along the I-4 corridor. Lakeland has been designated a Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area by the US Census Bureau for over 35 years.\u00a0The City owns and operates Lakeland Electric, the third-largest publicly owned utility in Florida and it was one of the first to offer power in the Sunshine State over 115 years ago.\u00a0For additional information about the City of Lakeland, please visit\u00a0www.lakelandgov.net.\u00a0 Citizens are also invited to follow the City on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo, Snapchat, and Nextdoor.\u00a0 Citizens can find the City of Lakeland on these social\u00a0media\u00a0platforms by searching lakelandgov.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swan Nesting Season is upon us in Lakeland, and we have a very rare occurrence on Lake Morton. The lone male Black Neck Swan that lost his mate during nesting… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8710,"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":"0","_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":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8709","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=8709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}