Fairy Tail

by Meg on August 1, 2006

Photographer "Mr. Whiskey" caught the eye of reader "Anders." This lil’ cygnet might just grow up to be purdy.

Mr_whiskey

You can purchase the BIG size of this photo here!

{ 63 comments }

1 Tisha___ 08.01.06 at 1:47 pm

Aww! That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen!

2 Caroline 08.01.06 at 1:48 pm

Oooh, look at the little grey fluffball amidst the flowers!

3 Serena 08.01.06 at 1:52 pm

Adorable!! I love the colors… frothy grey among the daisies!!

4 Dazie 08.01.06 at 1:52 pm

ohhh- so pensive. :)

5 Denita TwoDragons 08.01.06 at 1:53 pm

It’s the NOT-So-Ugly Duckling! *grin*

I wanna bury my face in his down and smell the sweet powderyness of him! (I don’t care if I’ll have to take my inhaler afterwards, either!)

–TwoDragons

6 Hila 08.01.06 at 1:56 pm

I’m not such an ugly duckling,
No feathers all stubby and brown,
For the other birds, in so many words, said –
*Quack*
The best in town!
*Quack*
The best
*Quack* *Quack*
The best
*Quack* *Quack*
The best in town! :)

7 arbed 08.01.06 at 1:57 pm

Pic #4 on the smugmug site is priceless, too – the little guy is staring right at the camera.

8 jana 08.01.06 at 1:58 pm

look at da babeee!!!!

he’s like, “momma, where we goin’”?

9 Theo 08.01.06 at 2:01 pm

Wow, it’s like one of those “artistic” commercials from the 90’s, in reverse.

(It’s the avian version of one of Lorna’s little graylings!)

10 chunkstyle 08.01.06 at 2:08 pm

Wow, I love the coal-blackness of its wee little beak. Fluffy perfection.

11 A thinker 08.01.06 at 2:11 pm

Weeel, he looks very shy and modest.

12 Tony James 08.01.06 at 2:20 pm

“What it is to be a grayscale gosling in a 256-million colour world…”

13 Michele 08.01.06 at 2:26 pm

whoever said she was ugly was dumb and in medieval times. that is way cute! i never saw a bebe swan before. I want one at my park :(

14 Courtney 08.01.06 at 2:27 pm

Way cuter than a duckling!

I love his sweet little ear indents.

15 Natalie 08.01.06 at 2:38 pm

Awe! He’s already purdy.

16 jaypo 08.01.06 at 2:46 pm

Demure and modest, pensive and floofy…I want to pick hims up and kees him.

17 Clotypus 08.01.06 at 2:50 pm

For some reason, perfectly green grass and daisies make everything look beautiful – the fact that this precious little cygnet is fluffy just amps up the cuteness exponentially.

18 Tony James 08.01.06 at 2:56 pm
19 ceejoe 08.01.06 at 3:00 pm

OMG, somebody go help that last little duckie!

20 A thinker 08.01.06 at 3:22 pm

teehee! Wonderful video, Teej. But it is sadly unsatisfactory: we never know if that poor forlorn little last guy makes it.

21 Tony James 08.01.06 at 3:31 pm

Tink – it’s so that they can make a sequel: “Sproing Duckie II – The Revenge”.

22 A thinker 08.01.06 at 3:33 pm

Aaaahh. Now I see.

23 cc 08.01.06 at 3:56 pm

Should name his “His Fuzzyness”. Too sweet and so hugable.

24 Tony James 08.01.06 at 4:07 pm

“Weeeeee! I love it when mom puts me in the tumble-dryer on the “fluff” cycle!”

25 Jeff 08.01.06 at 4:17 pm

I love little floofy signets.
I have a set of them on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbhenry/sets/72157594164625081/
But mine are kinda sad, because they started out with seven babies, and now there is only one left. Guess swans aren’t very good parents.

26 Tony James 08.01.06 at 4:27 pm

It’s sad but true – if you have lots of children then there is a good chance that some of them will survive while the majority become lunch (please don’t talk about this to Mac – one Spring afternoon he got it into his fuzzy noggin to snack on a local cygnet. Mommy & Daddy had other ideas, and chased his um “susbtantial” ass around the neighbourhood for a while. When you mention “cygnets” to him now he looks around nervously).
The Kennedys subscribe to this idea too, apparently.

27 zelda 08.01.06 at 4:28 pm

I *heart* cygnets! OMG. Wonder what this lil’ guy is looking at so intently?

Waah – that video makes me sad – I hope the last duckling joined his mom and siblings. He must be the runt.

28 ltornambe 08.01.06 at 4:31 pm

What do ducks eat? Quakers….

29 Aubrey 08.01.06 at 4:33 pm

Cygnets…those guys…always swanning about.

30 Tony James 08.01.06 at 4:33 pm

Quakers Oats? I thought mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy…

31 Tony James 08.01.06 at 4:34 pm

[gooses Aubrey for unlicensed punning]

32 VaCKo 08.01.06 at 4:34 pm

Jeff: it’s “cygnets.” “Signet” means something entirely different, and much less adorable (unless you have a really WONDERFUL seal).

33 Tony James 08.01.06 at 4:37 pm

I got your wonderful seal right here…
http://www.gdargaud.net/Antarctica/Life/NewbornSeal.jpg

34 Aubrey 08.01.06 at 4:40 pm

TJ:
Ouch. Better duck and cover, my friend – I have a blancmange and I’m not afraid to use it.

35 A thinker 08.01.06 at 4:42 pm

Teej, that *is* a wonderful seal. But I’m confoozled: how do I use it on my documents?

36 Tony James 08.01.06 at 4:43 pm

Bring it on – I’ve smuggled in the puddink-pult from a previous thread! Kittenleutnant Arbed! Make ready mit ze Fritzenfratzenpuddingwerfer!

37 arbed 08.01.06 at 4:44 pm

I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I heard that kid’s will eat ivy, too. Wouldn’t you?

38 Tony James 08.01.06 at 4:46 pm

Tink – you mail it out with each document, with a note at the bottom saying “Not genuine without this seal”. You’ll need some bigger envelopes, though, and probably some fish.

39 Anne 08.01.06 at 4:48 pm

Ugh, so gray he’s practically sparkly silver, for beak’s sake! “But Moooooom, I wanna snack!”

40 arbed 08.01.06 at 4:50 pm

/changes hats

Ya volt mein Katzenfuhrer! Ze Fritzenfratzenpuddingwerfer ist beink feeld as ve shpeak! I vill usse ze Tapioka becosse, vell, I fed ze Schocolade to ze offees peepls fur ze lunch.

41 A thinker 08.01.06 at 4:53 pm

Not to mention, a sizeable block of ice.

42 Aubrey 08.01.06 at 4:56 pm

Ah, so it’s the BOCHE again! Didn’t you learn from 1917? I have a dessert menu that has Jello-ed into a delicious fighting machine and I have no fear.

But for now it’s ‘Business As Usual’ so I’ll just swan-ter off for a bit…

43 maura 08.01.06 at 5:11 pm

ohhhhhhhhhh!!! he’s SO cute!!
i must have him!!!

44 Subhangi 08.01.06 at 5:21 pm

FLUFFY CYGGIE!!! AWWW.

45 Jeff 08.01.06 at 5:29 pm

VaCKo: Yes, Cygnets! I knew that, honest I did.

Stupid, stupid, me.

46 Thalia 08.01.06 at 5:31 pm

Tony James, I feel I should tsk tsk you for the heartlessness of the Kennedy comment, but, really, it makes a lot of sense.

47 warrior rabbit 08.01.06 at 5:48 pm

I love this one, where he’s all “Whatchoo lookin’ at?”
http://mr-whiskey.smugmug.com/gallery/1005674/1/38482772/Large

48 zelda 08.01.06 at 5:55 pm

I like the big ol’ fatty bassets in the pics before the wee cygnet.

Hey, any of you guys ever read “Trumpet of the Swan”? Great book!

49 jaypo 08.01.06 at 6:00 pm

Warrior Rabbit, he is so that! Lots o’personality in that fuzhy body…

50 paulette 08.01.06 at 6:08 pm

swaaanlet…..how I love ya, how I love ya, my dear little swanlet….

51 Aubrey 08.01.06 at 6:14 pm

“Mom – can you tell me the Tchaikovsky story again?”

52 jaypo 08.01.06 at 6:23 pm

“Once upun a time…”

53 Denita TwoDragons 08.01.06 at 6:32 pm

Zelda–that was my favorite book as a young girl! (Still is, for that matter!) I wanted a trumpet-playing whistler swan of my very own for sooooo many years after I first read that story! *LOL*

Anyone who has ever watched the movies is missing out on the REAL experience–E.B. White’s books are a guzillion times better than any of the films that have been made! (Though the first Charlotte’s Web cartoon was very true to the original story, right to the original ending. Impressive, given that most kids aren’t exposed to that aspect of life anymore…but that’s a soapbox for another day…*grin*)

–TwoDragons

54 zelda 08.01.06 at 6:44 pm

Denita, E.B. White is my favorite author, I think. Not just his WONDERFUl children’s books (er, I still read them, over and over), but also his essays (esp. when he was at the New Yorker).

If I were queen for a day, I’d make EVERYONE read Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte’s Web, and Stuart Little!

55 trin 08.01.06 at 7:03 pm

When he grows up he’ll hang out at the coffee shop at the park, hold out his wings to look as big and dangerous as possible, and shake down HUMANS for bagettes, donuts, and pizza.

56 Lauri 08.01.06 at 8:10 pm

Ooooo, hooray for a new book to read! I haven’t read Trumpet of the Swan!

Thank you, Queen Zelda!

57 zelda 08.01.06 at 9:10 pm

Ah yes, Lauri… we are pleased you like our suggestion!

Queen Z.

58 Becca 08.02.06 at 12:30 am

Aw, this is a million times better because it looks like he’s having some especially introspective moment.

59 Denita TwoDragons 08.02.06 at 2:57 am

I’d heard he did essays, but I didn’t know they were compiled into book form. Titles…?

Yeah, that’s pretty much the literary trifecta that I cut my teeth on as a kiddo. I remember my first time reading TotS–I was at my late Grandma’s house, having just been put to bed, and I found it in the bedside drawer (along with Johnathan Livingston Seagull, which I also loved…) and started reading it. I couldn’t put it down. I literally devoured the whole book in one night!

*sigh* I gotta get those books for my son when he gets older… (and occasionally let HIM read them, even…*grin*)

–TwoDragons

60 Aubrey 08.02.06 at 2:57 am

Becca, cygnet-itating, maybe.

61 Netherland Dwarf rabbit, owner!!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 08.02.06 at 7:26 am

That is swan adorabibble pic!

62 David R 08.02.06 at 10:14 am

Denita,
I know what you mean about Charlottes Web, even the hardest hearted gets dust in their eye at the end. Despite my age I want to read the last Mog book

63 Alex 08.03.06 at 2:22 pm

omg, that whole “ugly duckling” story was a lie! it’s the cutesiest!

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