Mute Swan

While staying in Kauai, I saw a Mute Swan for the first time in the wild. It made its home on a nearby pond (Below).

A Mute Swan at a pond in Kauai, Hawaii; 7/6/08.

Mute swans can grow as large as 5' long with a wing span of over 6'. They are unique in the swan family with its orange bill.  I also saw one while in London during a Spring Break trip last April (Below).

A Mute swan in a St. James Park pond, London, UK; 4/8/10.

My most surprising sighting of a Mute Swan came in the spring of 2009, when I saw a small flock of three at our own Rock Cut State Park (Below), here in Rockford, Illinois. They make their summer homes in small lakes in the Northern lakes of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Canada, and around the Great Lakes: Superior, Michigan and Ontario.


Three Mute Swans resting at Pierce Lake at Rock Cut State Park, Rockford, IL; 5/10/09.