Swans - Very Much a Part of Hellevoetsluis Life.

We like, perhaps even love, our Swans in Hellevoetsluis.
Originally rather elusive waterfowl, they have become an established ordinary inhabitant of the historic naval port, home to some 40,000 people. Drivers are quite used to entire swan families (of up to 10 members) inhabiting the grass verges of the roads, and keep an eye out for swans crossing the road at their leisure.

 © Wibe Koopman Photography

Hellevoetsluis has a lot of waterways, and that is the key to our great mute swan population, for although they have become confident town dwellers, they do want their bath close by.

In Spring people are charmed by the fluffy white cygnets, who cluster around their parents and usually mirror their movements perfectly (if not sleeping). I have witnessed seven cars patiently waiting for a swan family of nine to cross a busy thoroughfare, and have frequently seen people leaving their cars unattended in order to herd some swans to safety.

Folks feed them as well, and this presents some problems. For swans, like all animals, like their home comforts, so when they realize there is a snack-to-go nearby, they tend to cluster around that house and leave their huge droppings all over the pavements. And they can become quite pushy about their food, as one of my friends found out.

Years ago there lived a swan family of six in the small park near their house. My friend was given to feeding them left-over bread, and one day the cob followed her home. She thought this amusing, so fed him some bread on the garden path. The next day he was back, and again she fed him some bread.
He started coming every day, and started bringing his pen and cygnets as well, who modestly waited at the garden gate while Mr Swan waddled up to the back door. This went on for some days, to the amusement of all.
But then, Mr Swan started coming earlier and earlier, until he was literally hammering on the back door at 5 am.
This my friend thought not quite as amusing, and she started closing the garden gate to keep him out. Undaunted, he walked around the house and started hammering on the front windows.
It took her weeks of ignoring him until he took his loss and stayed away.

We have swans in the pond of the park behind our house. We love watching them when the young swans are practicing their flight. The pond is adequate, but not very large, so it takes some clever navigating to actually take off in time (it always reminds me of Faro Airport, Portugal) and they have to make an immediate sharp turn after lift-off to clear some huge willow trees.
We hear them making speed on the surface of the pond, with lots of flapping and many false starts. We have heard some almighty crashes after one of the swans has made a wrong turn, or a wrong calculation, but so far no casualties. Not even when one of them crashed into our neighbour's roof (the story of this is on my blog of Feb. 21st of 2014, I believe) and fell on my neighbour's head.

We have not incorporated swans into our mythology (as far as I know - I'm not all-knowing though!)in the Wetlands. Strange, really. But we do love them in Hellevoetsluis.

This is the entrance to the port of Hellevoetsluis

(On May 15th, 2014 I again blogged about swans, but from a different perspective. And if you like reading about animals: I very regularly blog about the birds in my garden, my butch tomcat Viggo, the deer I chase with a camera and my old dog Gina)

 (except for the photo by Wibe, the rest of them I have lifted from the Internet and so do not know who has taken them as they were there anonymously)

In the Wetlands We Celebrate Animal Day Today.

October 4th used to be a magical day!

We would buy treats for our dog and cats, and as a girl I used to put a ribbon around the neck of my favourite cat Bobbie (we had 3 at the time), which he would graciously allow to be there for a while, until he'd had enough and got rid of it.

Our other animals would get treats as well; we gave the 7 goats water crackers, which they adored, and the chickens would get endive.

Nowadays I only have one cat and one dog around the house.

But today still is a special day for the cat, as we got our Viggo from the shelter exactly four years ago.

He has the best life imaginable, with a large garden, plenty of food, loving people and personnel to open doors for him. Not bad eh, for an alley cat?

Thomas O'Malley the Alley Cat

So, to celebrate today, I'll leave you with some of my favourite animal photos.

Thank you for caring for your animals.

Generation Conflicts - are they simply natural?

Good evening!
This evening I had an interesting conversation with my son (21) about generation conflicts.

In the Belgian Ardennes, 2011.

When I was as old as he is now, there was a huge gap between the generations. The generation of my grandma didn't understand the generation of my mum, who let their kids run loose and wild (sex, drugs & rock & roll), and the generation of my mum didn't understand why my generation needed to lose themselves in sex, drugs & rock & roll. They didn't want to set us free; we simply took our chance and demanded our freedom.

It gave rise to many a conflict, I can tell you!

I have girlfriends of my own age (on the other side of 55) with children, and we all agree that we experience and enjoy warmer and more open relationships with our kids.

So what causes generation conflicts?
We came to the following conclusions:
- parents want their kids to avoid the mistakes they have made themselves
- parents want their kids to have a better life and take all opportunity for improvement
- kids want to do their own thing
- kids want to be able to make their own mistakes
- kids don't want their parents to meddle
- parents want kids to listen/behave/obey

Perhaps there are more causes, if you know any feel free to tell me.
But after tossing all these reasons into the mix, we came to the following idea:

* isn't all this conflict simply nature's way of making certain our kids want to pack their bags and start out on their own?

I like to watch the swans near my house.

They are caring parents! They look after their kids for more than a year, until the feathers have turned from brown to snowy white. They defend them hissing and spitting and threatening with their wings from dogs and humans. And then, from one day to the next, they are RUTHLESS.
I have witnessed young swans being chased straight into the path of racing cars by their parents. Away! Out of my sight! Move it! You are no longer wanted!
And absolutely no mercy.

Dogs are different, by the way. They live happily in the same house with their offspring, no problem. And cats, too, accept their own kids in the same house, but then cats are more individual anyway.

Still, we thought that it isn't natural for a young person to not want to move out at some stage.  If you stay (willingly!!!) beyond 25, you are either bone-lazy, or have no job thus no money, or there is a medical problem. And yes, there is a tiny number who stay out of altruism, because they feel their mum/dad/both parents cannot cope without them.

So. The next time my kid is stroppy, and I want to paste him/her behind the wallpaper (Dutch expression), I'll try to remember this conversation.

Do you like swans? Then let me introduce you to ours.

We live very near a large communal park pond, so are used to seeing waterfowl. I am not afraid of the mute swans, but I do respect them, as their heads are on a level with mine when they stretch their long necks.

I'll tell you about an adventure we had with a big male a couple of years ago, but first I'll show you 'our' swans.

They've had a mild winter this year, so we haven't had to feed them up, but they've got good memories and know that we feed the birds. So every day they waddle up to our garden gate and see if there is anything tasty within their reach.

This couple has been together for years. They like the birdseed which has been scattered by the doves, who are very messy eaters.

It's a pity there is no soundtrack with these photos, as they were both making noises to me: a mix of hisses and fluting sounds. 

Viggo, big butch tom that he thinks he is, felt the need to show them that he comes first in the Koopman food chain. But the swans weren't impressed.

Right. The Swan Tale. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

Some years ago, in the Springtime, a lonely male mute swan was trying his wings over the pond. He was young, he was looking to show off to the females in the pond, and he had been circling for quite some time.

I don't know what happened exactly, but what I do know is that my neighbour was just coming out of her front door to pick up her kid from school. And our show-off swan misjudged his pass over our roof, and flew slap-bang straight into their gutter with an almighty crash, lost it, and fell onto the head of my neighbour. Who screamed loud enough to make me come running to see who was killing her.

She was on the ground, with the unconscious swan on top of her, and practically hysterical. But unharmed.

I ran to get my husband, who lifted the swan, and took it to our back garden, whilst I helped my neighbour. She was okay, and quickly left for the school, and I went to see what was happening with the swan.

Theo had put it on the garden bench, and we debated whether to call a vet, or the special 'bird lady' we know in a village nearby, and who has helped us out with injured birds before. But the swan opened one eye, and then opened the other eye, and looked at us. So we decided to leave it alone for a bit, to see what it would do.

Within half an hour it sat up, and sat very quietly on the bench for another 15 minutes or so. And then it hopped onto the ground, and took a leisurely tour of the garden. When it passed the gate, I opened it, and the swan walked out. His head was as high as mine, and as he passed me he looked me straight into the eye and mumbled something. I like to think it was  'thanks, bye'.

C Wibe Koopman Photography