As they say, the best laid plans of mice and men and swankeepers will always go awry...or something like that. The two cygnets of Sully and Susie were maturing rapidly, but the parents were in no hurry to banish them from the territory. So I decided to take the initiative and capture them in early January.
The capture started out textbook: push all four onto land where the parents would take flight, leaving the pinioned cygnets as easy prey. Strange thing happened; all four flew away! Damn, the new vet did not pinion them correctly.
It became a matter of waiting for nature to arrive and, during their annual molting period, grab the 20 plus pound buggers when they could not get airborne.
The parents did their thing, booting the cygnets out of the territory. Nature's molting came right on schedule. And with three of us and one golf cart, we captured the two and Bubba in less than an hour.
Bubba's earlier pinioning was likewise a problem, so the vet corrected the earlier mistakes and also microchipped and gender tested the pair from Sully and Susie. Bubba was quickly returned to brother Lefty. The cygnet pair, truly stunning birds, remain at Camelot Lakes while awaiting placement elsewhere.
17 swans are residing on the golf courses of Longboat Key, a number I hope to retain in the future.