Swans Vicki and Henry together find new home

Famed Longboat Key swans Vicki and Henry are back together in their new home: the lakeside home of Lakeland veterinarian and swan-care expert Dr. Geoff Gardner.

The Longboat lovebirds had been living apart for the past month-and-a-half, after Vicki became sick and longtime swan-keeper David Novak took her to Save Our Seabirds, which he thought would be her permanent home.

Without his mate, Henry began intruding on the territory of three other swans and provoking fights with the male. Novak brought Henry to SOS to reunite him with Vicki before Regal Swan Foundation CEO Sheila Bolin drove the pair to Lakeland in a van.

The swans are named for longtime Longboat Key Publix associate “Miss Vicki” Workman and her husband, George, whose middle name is Henry.

Vicki and Henry have a royal lineage: They’re descendants of a 1957 pair of swans that Queen Elizabeth II gifted to Lakeland after predators decimated the local population.

Vicki Workman was happy to learn about the reunion of the pair.

“Do tears tell it all?” she said. “I was just so afraid that poor Henry would always be on his own.”

For more information, pick up a March 7 copy of the Longboat Observer.