"We need silence to be able to touch souls."-Mother Teresa
Swans have been associated with tranquility and nobility, featuring in myths and stories around the world. Swans were a valuable commodity and during the middle ages only wealthy people could own them or trade in them. The owners of swans were duty bound to buy an expensive “swan mark” from the king, which they could carve or brand onto the beaks of their swans. It was the duty of the Royal Swanmaster to organise the annual swan-upping -a tradition to round up unmarked cygnets (young swans) marking them appropriately and returning them to the wild. This tradition survives to this day in a largely symbolic form. The Royal swans are no longer marked, but an unmarked mute swan on the Thames is regarded as belonging to the Queen by default.
The "mute swan" gets its name because it is less vocal than other swan species. The term "swan song" which means the final performance originates from the legend that, while they are mute during the rest of their lives, swans sing beautifully and mournfully before death approaches. However this is just a myth.
Mute Swan
(Cygnus olor)
Sony A77 II
Tamron 150-600
f/5.6, 1/320s, ISO100, 160mm
Stamford, (UK)
Jan 2021