Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, from Mythical Meanings to the Modern Day
- Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, from Mythical Meanings to the Modern Day by Dan Keel (Summersdale, Chichester, 2022).
- 256 pages, line drawings.
- ISBN 9781800073364. Pbk, £9.99
- Bookshop from £8.99
It's worth making clear from the outset that this book is aimed at the mass market and is probably not going to tell many birders much about swans that they do not already know. It is a collection of facts about swans (mostly Mute) that are pulled together into seven main chapters that discuss aspects of swans' lives.
The author intersperses other thoughts on birds, the countryside and life into the passages, occasionally reverting to poetry. An example is that in a seven-page section on swans and their challenges with pylons, there is a diary excerpt from April 1996 with other birds singing, followed by a page of text quoting poetry on skylarks by John Clare and Samuel Ochart Beeton and then a discussion of birds that the author has seen on pylons. He then finds a dead swan below a pylon line and describes in some detail day by day how the body has decomposed and been eaten by other animals.
There is more than a page detailing the demise of the White-throated Needletail on Harris in 2013, which flew into a wind turbine. We learn nothing about the number of swans that hit power lines, nor the effort being made to reduce collisions. Even for a book that is more literary than factual that is a disappointment. Other chapters cover the breeding season, migration and myths. There is also a section on how to photograph swans.
Overall, I felt it missed so many opportunities to convey information that is widely available and useful. To a general reader it may be of interest, but I feel that birders will feel underwhelmed
