The Attack Swan at the Schwanenteich

We've been having some fun exploring our new town, Mittweida.  All in all it's a cozy, very pretty town with a good library:  my test was a search for David Sedaris and Wladimir Kaminer books, both were present.  Yes!  Even the Cashbags have played here.  Regardless of everything, our awesome Floßhaus can't be beat.  But last week's adventure was pretty cool.

The weather has finally warmed up, so we aren't freezing in sub-zero temperatures any more, but rather, we're feeling quite summery.  I decided to get some ice cream bars with the kids and check out the famed Schwanenteich (Swan Pond) here in town.  It was better than I could have imagined:  not only are there swans, ducks, and geese, but there's also a voliere with exotic birds and peacocks and even some deer!  The main attraction was the swans, though.  First we noticed how friendly the ducks seemed, they were coming out of the water toward us, probably because they were hungry for our ice cream.  After watching the ducks a bit, I noticed one of the two swans swimming faster than I'd ever seen a swan swim ever before.  Hmm, that's strange, I thought, and observed it a little longer.  Upon further observation, it became clear that this swan was duck hunting.  Any duck that came within a three-meter radius of it, or actually any duck that it happened to swim near for that matter, became a target. The swan would start swimming really fast, tip its wingtips upward, and when it got near the duck, it would lunge and snap.  I wondered if this was a one-time thing, but no, the swan circulated around the whole pond, speeding, lunging and snapping away.  I decided to take a few photos, because I'd never seen anything like it before.

Fast Swan swimming...

...swimming...

...lunging...

...snapping!

Was this duck (also seen at the Schwanenteich) a victim of Fast Swan?  Friedrich didn't think so, he said it just flew too fast and crashed into the rocks.  We will never know what his true demise was.