RESIDENTS of and visitors to the town of Piešťany are now learning that dried bread and rolls are not the best food for swans. Near the River Váh and particularly on the Colonnade Bridge signs have been erected that encourage people to give “something better to eat” to swans, gulls and ducks along the river.
The information boards were unveiled by vice-mayor Timotej Miština on September 20 to advise people how to make their well-meant trifles better for the birds’ health, according to the town’s web site. The text on the boards says that swans prefer corn and a granulated feed mixture.
The first swan was spotted in Piešťany in 1963, Kornel Duffek, a long-time bird observer from the Piešťany area, told the TASR newswire. Six young swans were also brought to Piešťany from Pilsen in the Czech Republic and later settled on a tributary of the Váh.
Duffek said that swans have no natural enemy except man. Humans can harm them either with careless fishing or by discharging detergents into waterways: these remove fat from their feathers, which makes it impossible for the birds to fly and more likely to freeze in cold winters.
4. Oct 2010 at 0:00 | Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská
