
From what I can see, the Department of Natural Resources has been highly successful in its determination to eliminate all or most of the mute swans that have multiplied here after years of living on the rivers of the Eastern Shore. Not long ago they were commonly sighted on the Miles River and the Tred Avon. For grace and pure elegance, there’s hardly a local bird to even come close to their grace.
Sad to say, they finally became so numerous that they were no longer universally admired. Politely put, the swans wore out their welcomes. Their major sin was greed. Their competition with Canada geese for food became damaging to underwater plants. Geese only eat the tops; swans eat the entire plant, roots and all.
These beautiful birds are not native to the Americas, but they’re so fabulously handsome that it’s no wonder there were howls of indignation from the public when the edict made them undesirable.
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