“Ah, I thought, “the hint of Spring in the air …… romance …… mates pairing up …..swan couples making “hearts" – a lovely day at the Lagoon.” Well, not exactly...

Visitors to the lagoon these days will probably witness pre-Nesting Season WARFARE! The hormones are flowing like Vancouver rain, and poor little Cupid, if he were to show his face, would get beat up!

I went down just after 3 pm, and saw Precious, Marlika and Genghis Swan madly chasing everything that moved. Precious (“the King”) was going for a Swan Six-Pack – racing in circles so he could latch onto the most swans in the shortest time! He had to settle for two, and then went in hot pursuit of the slowest of that pair. His “sweet” little mate Marlika followed with wings up, pecking every swan she met. Sedate 16-year-old Boy, meantime, took after Tristan (amazing how Boy's perked up this week!) while Genghis Swan concentrated on snapping at Isolde. Tristan took a peck out of one of the "teddies" (Ambleside cygnets) and..... a couple of the teddies started pecking each other, after watching the adults and deciding, “hey! this could be fun!”

As if all that weren’t bad enough..... two male mallard ducks right near my feet were rolling head-over-heels in the mud, trying to beat each other senseless with their wings and..... my cute little Canada Goose (gander) with the broken wing - who's normally a “sweetheart,” was chasing and biting the $#!**^%! out of the other geese silly enough to come near him!

As I approached Mama and Papa Swan's end of the lagoon I heard his signature 4 LOUD snorts, one after the other and looked over the water - sure enough, there he was, head thrown back, breast out, wings flapping like a demented windmill - showing off for Mama Swan, who totally ignored him.