Picture worth of thousand words...

Admin · Site Admin

Picture worth of thousand words... I'm sure you heard it before. Today I saw something very interesting, so here the picture goes..

I will explain in a couple of days, why I posted it here. Meanwhile, you can give me your "thousand words"

flaggin · Helping Hand III

well this won't be no thousand words. but what the picture suggests to me is that if they had've lined the exterior hulls of the titanic and edmund fitzgerald with goose feathers, they'd still be afloat.

it brings to mind the story of the ugly duckling tho i am sure there is more to the picture than that.

how about the idea that barriers (ice) can be overcome in numbers or at least with one other, not alone.

if you are feeling trapped by addiction, eventually things will open up, allow you freedom. again, with the support of others.

i wonder how many feathers it would have took to upgrade those ships.

Admin · Site Admin

Interesting Wink

Admin · Site Admin

It's close but not, what I had in mind...
It has something to do with behavior of this birds...

Anyone else? I also need girls opinion on this one.

pause4poetry · Moderator

Beautiful Picture Gene....

Beautiful and peaceful looking, a pair of swans can make you
think as they swim in close unison with each other that they
are the perfect match ... which may be correct, because swans
usually pair up and mate for life.
LOYAL

In spite of thier delicate looking beauty, they are pretty hardy
birds and can withstand the elements quite well.
DURABLE

Like geese they can appear peaceful from a distance
they can be very aggressive as they are territorial.
CAN BE A CHALLENGE TO CONTEND WITH....

When push comes to shove they may be flighty, but
there is a good chance it your are the swans turf ...
you may get bit....
PROTECTIVE

Hmmmm Now may I ask why you wanted a woman's point of view ?

Not quite a thousand words, but all that I have for you .....

Wink

....is there more ?

lucyb · Helping Hand I

All really good comments on this picture.

Bill-the Navy could use you and your ideas!

The geese are in the water which is surrounded by broken ice. I don't know how the ice broke, maybe the geese did it. Maybe the geese were confident in their knowledge of where to find water - that even tho there was ice on the outside they knew if they could break through they would find the water they needed.

Admin · Site Admin

Aha! Getting hotter. It has something to do with male responsibilities.
Hint: first swan is a male. All responses are true and do paint a picture of thousand words. Today, I will post more pictures and will explain some points. Thank you all.
Anyone else?

nikki · Devoted

Okay i am not good at this but here goes nothing. The male is supposed to lead the female and protect her in all aspects of life.

Nikki

lucyb · Helping Hand I

Ok Gene, I've read what I can find on these swans and I'm still not getting what you are trying to tell us.
Other then the general facts that swans mate for life, and the male is the one who prepares the nest for the eggs and then protects it, I'm unable to find much more on their specific behaviors.
Yes, in swan world the male is supposed to protect the female, but I don't agree this is the same role that man are allotted in our human world (go women!!). I'm not making the connection here.
More photos or hints to follow??

Admin · Site Admin

All your words are true.

On this picture are couple of mute swans, in Long Island, New York.
Some facts:
Mute swan is called this way because it is less vocal among others swans, but most definitely is not mute.
Mute Swan is the national bird of the Kingdom of Denmark.
All Mute Swans in the UK (with the possible exception of those in Orkney and Shetland) are considered the property of the British monarch, except for flocks owned by the Vintners' and Dyers' Companies.
The Mute Swans in the moat at The Bishops Palace at Wells Cathedral in Wells, England have for centuries been trained to ring bells via strings attached to them to beg for food. Two Swans are still able to ring for lunch.
Both the Ancient Britons and the Anglo-Saxons believed that a swan's wings throbbed and sang with a human voice when they flew.
Swan is a symbol of love and marriage. Swan decorations are typical for wedding day. Couple of swans is the traditional theme for Valentines Day, Long, graciously curved necks of swan form shape of the heart.
Male swan is the biggest flying bird.
An average adult weight of 20-25 pounds and a wing span of nearly 7 feet. Both sexes have a black face patch with a fleshy knob on the forehead that overlays an orange bill. These facial characteristics distinguish mute swans from other swan species in New York State. Males ("cobs") tend to have slightly larger knobs and body sizes than females ("pens"). Despite these differences, it is very difficult to tell the sexes apart.

Swans usually mate for life. It was very common believe, that they are monogamous, recent years studies question that common believe. . Once bonded, the male and female affirm and support each other in all things. They build their nest together. They share egg sitting so each has feeding and brooding breaks. They teach their newborn cygnets to forage for food, and defend them from all predators. In many legends cob will lay down his life for his family. If one of the pair dies, the other often lives out the rest of his or her life alone or even sacrifice its own live..
The love and loyalty of these beautiful birds has inspired legends for centuries.
Swan was born as an 'ugly duckling' (cygnets are grey), but with time it transforms in one of the most gracious bird -- white swan.

Because of its pure white colour, the swan is a symbol of light in many parts of the world. Though in some regions it was considered a feminine symbol of the moon, in most it was a masculine symbol of the sun. In ancient Greece, for example, the swan was linked to Apollo, the Lord of the Sun. The Lord Zeus took the shape of a swan to get close to Leda, with whom he had fallen in love. And in Celic myth, a pair of swans steered the Sunboat across heaven. As a feminine symbol, the swan represents intuition and gracefulness, and goddesses such as Aphrodite and Artemis were sometimes accompanied by swans.
As a symbol in alchemy, the swan was neither masculine nor feminine, but rather symbolised hermaphroditism or 'the marriage of the opposites', fire and water. It was an emblem of mercury, as it was white and very mobile, because of its wings.
In Germanic myth the Valkyries had the power to transform into swans. They were warrior goddesses, bringing victory to one side and defeat to the other, and deciding which warriors could enter Walhalla after death. They would sometimes take off their swan-plumage and appear in human form, but if a man then stole their plumage, they were forced to obey him. However, the Valkyries could also be united with a man through love instead of force. The Valkyrie Kara accompanied her lover Helgi in war, flying over the battlefield in her swan's plumage. She sang a song so soothing that the enemy lost the will to fight. Also in Celtic and Siberian culture stories existed of swans taking off their plumage and turning into maidens.
As a dream symbol, the swan can signify self transformation, intuition, sensitivity, and even the soul, the 'higher Self' within each person.

In shamanism, the Swan totem is associated with love, inspiration, intuition, self-transformation, gracefulness and beauty, and also with traveling to the Otherworld. As a water bird, it is also connected with emotions. Swan can help you with seeing the inner beauty in yourself and others, developing your intuition, accepting transformations and balancing your emotions.

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The diet of mute swans consists of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) found in water as deep as 4 feet. They eat a variety of plant species and consume about 4-8 pounds of vegetation daily. In order to get this vegetation swan must be in free flowing water. If during the winter pond covered with thick ice, swans have to break ice to get food.

As you see on this picture male swan is breaking the ice to lead his mate to the food. This is a man responsibility in swan families Smile

Female responsibility is to accept the most caring male to produce a next generation.