Paul Sullivan: The Story of the Swans of Delnor Pond

Ricky and Lucy, a pair of mated mute swans, have returned for their 10th summer at Delnor Pond on the campus of Delnor Hospital.

Every spring on their return, the first thing they do is circle the pond in opposite directions. They then meet in the center of the pond facing each other.

“They make a perfect heart, just like you see on cards,” said Ron Daszkiewicz, the Delnor employee who for the last four years has fed and taken care of Ricky, Lucy and their hatchlings, called cygnets.   

Male swans, called cobs, are quite aggressive in defending their territory and their young, said Daszkiewicz.

“Ricky’s the guard dog. He doesn’t like me because I make him go where he doesn’t want to go. He nearly took my knee out one day when I first started. He’s got a big bone on his wing he uses like a hammer. It’s a love-hate relationship. But I miss them in the winter when they’re gone.”

At feeding time recently, Daszkiewicz had a problem. A double ring of fencing encircles the pond to keep waterfowl from eating native grasses planted to control erosion. Two of the three cygnets were in between fences. They couldn’t get to the water to go eat with their parents at a floating feed box where Daszkiewicz would soon place five-pounds of mixed grains. Ricky and Lucy were on the water side of the fence, trying to keep Daszkiewicz away from their cygnets pecking at the fence. 

While fending off Ricky’s attacks, Daszkiewicz corralled both cygnets and gently put them over the fence into the water. Ricky, with his family once again reunited, dipped his head and long neck in the water several times rapidly.

“That’s his victory dance,” said Daszkiewicz. “Means he’s won.”

Twenty-two years ago, Judy Smith, RN and director of service, excellence and outreach at Delnor, initiated the idea of bringing swans to Delnor Pond.

“I think they are one of the most beautiful things on the property,” said Smith. “The patients at the Cancer Center love to see the swans floating on the pond.”

To keep the swans from flying away, the pinion of their right wing is clipped. The pond is their only defense against predators, said Smith. Before the pond freezes over, the swan breeder comes to collect Ricky, Lucy and the cygnets until Ricky and Lucy return next spring to Delnor Pond

A female swan, known as a pen, lays a clutch of three to five eggs, one a day. When the last egg is laid, Ricky and Lucy take turns sitting on them for 36 days until they hatch.

In Shakespeare’s day, a quill feather from a pen swan was a writing instrument called a pen quill. Eventually the word quill was dropped, leaving us with pen, as in ballpoint or fountain.