Inquiring Park Visitors Want to Know: Are Those Swans for Real?

Have you seen the swans a swimming in Rochester? Look closely. Then look again: they're not as real as they seem.

Two fiberglass swans were placed, floating, in the pond at last week. City Department of Public Service workers put them there, ingenuously chained together and weighted down, according to Rochester City Manager Jaymes Vettraino, to help control a problem with geese at the pond.

The city has nothing against geese: it's just that in this particular location, near the park entrance, the geese were getting a little too close to young children. Not to mention the mess they were leaving behind.

Fake swans are a tried-and-true method for keeping geese away.   

"So far, it seems to be working," Vettraino said. 

The geese float freely with the current in the pond, and Vettraino said he has seen many park visitors stop to stare at them with curiousity.