Longboat Key swans hatch hope

When Susie, one of nine famous female Longboat Key swans, swims around the ponds of the Harbourside Golf Course, she does so with care and grace, seemingly without a care in the world.

Not far behind, are four fuzzy cygnets.

When she climbs to land, the cygnets work their way up the small hill, one webbed foot at a time. It takes some longer than others, but eventually they make it. They’re never far from Susie, and rightfully so. For the next few months, it’s up to her to show them how to be a swan.

The cygnets were born April 30. Their arrival pushed away a dark cloud that had been hovering over the swans. On April 28, Susie’s mate, Sully, died. Together, Susie and Sully had 10 cygnets over four years.

Longboat Key swan keeper David Novak didn’t notice anything drastically wrong with Sully on April 27. He was just a little sluggish. But a day later, Novak saw him in the water looking distressed and brought him to the vet where his heartbeat and lungs improved briefly before he died. Novak said he believes the cause of death was a bacterial infection.

“This year’s been a rough year as far as stress in the environment because of lack of fresh water due to the rainfall shortage. While it may appear to be green all over the place here, really it does require good, fresh water to keep everything in balance,” Novak said.

The stressful environment didn’t harm just Sully. On April 18, Novak got a call saying there was a swan on the blue golf course near Queens Harbor that had been there for four hours. Novak found Beverly, 19, barely alive. She died shortly after.

On May 2, Novak received another call. This time he found Bubba, a 2-year-old male, dead in the water.

“So, now we pray for better environmental conditions,” Novak said.

But with the bad, comes the good. On May 1, the cygnets took their first swim. On May 5, Susie was teaching them how to eat the food Novak left them.

Since Sully’s death, Novak has assumed the father role. Because three eggs were unhatched in her nest, Susie was on her own when it came to dividing attention between the hatched cygnets and the unhatched. Usually, Sully would care for the cygnets while Susie continued to incubate the unhatched eggs, hoping they would hatch.

But because that couldn’t happen, Novak removed the unhatched eggs and spread the nest apart, something the male swan typically does following the hatching of cygnets. Noticing her nest was gone, Susie began the search for new territory. On May 3, she brought the cygnets to the small pond across the street from Publix and CVS where male swans, Tut and Phil, lived.

That move made Novak nervous. Swans are territorial, so he thought Tut and Phil would harm the cygnets because neither of them are the parents. However, the next morning, Novak found Susie, the four cygnets and Tut swimming together. Phil had been pushed to another area.

“This is uncharted territory,” Novak said. “I’m shocked.”

And for a few days, Tut swam near Susie and the cygnets, and she tolerated him. But on May 5, Novak found Tut on the other side with his buddy, Phil. Susie will raise the cygnets on her own, like Islandside swan Wendy did when her partner, Stan, died.

“They have to maintain their wildness to prove themselves,” Novak said. “She teaches them how to be a swan, and the rest is Mother Nature.”