A question about a male swan I feed daily. In the UK it’s January, so still winter, but moving into spring in around 8 weeks.

Over the last 2 weeks, the male of the pair has become increasingly aggressive. He comes out of the water and walks towards me with his head down and wings up in a clearly aggressive stance. The female is fine and friendly.

Today it was low tide and he flew towards me. Naturally I ran away! One of the fishermen who saw thinks it’s because he gets annoyed with the seagulls diving down stealing his bread.

But the male then walked up the harbour and flew towards me again…it looked aggressive, even though I had food. I had to move pretty fast!

Can you explain if this behaviour is a prelude to breeding season? He was incredibly aggressive. I’ve never had this issue before and can usually stand next to him at low tide on the sand no problem.

I might skip feeding at low tide for a while!

Many Thanks
Amber