Sully, Susie take hatchlings under their wings

Don’t count your swans until they hatch.

Swans Stan and Wendy, both 12, hatched six healthy cygnets May 3, and quickly culled one, leaving five baby birds. The pair had already shown their parenting prowess in the past: All six of the couple’s cygnets from last year surprisingly survived.

Alan and Beverly were less successful: Their nest produced one viable cygnet that did not survive because Beverly focused her energy on the infertile eggs in her nest. Both Alan and Beverly are 16 and could be near the end of their reproductive years, according to unofficial swan keeper David Novak.

The third pair, Sully and Susie, only mated last year and built their first nest ever across from CVS. Their young ages — Sully is 6, and Susie is 5 — combined with the fact that they built their nest late in the season left Novak with little hope for the nest this season.

But on May 17, to Novak’s surprise, the pair hatched four healthy cygnets.

Already, the pair is impressing him with their parenting skills.

“Those four cygnets are going to be huge,” Novak said. “They’re strong, they’re vibrant and they’re doing things at a few days that you would expect in a week.”

By their third day, the cygnets were feeding from food that Novak floats on the water, even diving their heads in the water.

“That’s unheard of,” Novak said. “I’ve never seen that at that age.”

Susie required a little prodding before she took her babies under her wing. Novak had to coerce her from her nest, where she had an infertile egg, to care for her newly hatched cygnets in the water.

“Mother Nature is taking over,” Novak said. “They’ve just been wonderful parents so far.”

The swans are the descendants of original swan pair, George and Gracie, purchased by the late Harbour Links resident Alan Stone as an anniversary gift for his wife, Beverly. Gracie died of botulism in 2007, and George was moved to a pond in Lakeland.

Their offspring includes three mated pairs: Alan and Beverly and Stan and Wendy, plus Henry and Vicki, who Novak arranged to have moved last year so they could live near the the lakeside home of Lakeland veterinarian and swan-care expert Dr. Geoff Gardner.

Sully and Susie hatched from separate nests produced by Henry and Vicki.

The Key also has two pairs that will never produce cygnets: Novak paired females Clare and Greta and males Nik and Bello, all of whom hatched from Stan and Wendy’s nest last year, as part of a long-term swan family planning effort. (A Sarasota neighborhood is the new home of a third unnamed male-female pair.)

Claire and Greta “have stayed in one place, have their routine and seem to be very happy,” Novak said.

Nik and Bello are also thriving in their territory near Harbourside Drive.

“As long as Sully realizes it’s not his territory, they’ll be fine,” Novak said.

Gracie Swan Foundation
The swan family experienced a sad loss April 22.

David Novak found Susie’s sibling, Pippa, who had once been Susie’s rival for Sully’s affections, thrashing in the water. Novak tried to calm her and flush her with fluids through a tube in her throat, but Pippa died that night.

Pippa likely died from avian botulism, a naturally occurring toxin that killed swan matriarch Gracie in 2007.

Novak established the Gracie Swan Foundation last year to assist with swan care costs.

Contributions can be made to: The Gracie Swan Foundation, c/o SunTrust, 510 Bay Isles Road, Longboat Key, FL, 34228.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected]