On my way to class the other morning, as I crossed a bridge over the Neckar River, I glanced over to the part of the river on the opposite side of the bridge. There I spotted the largest group of swans I’ve ever seen all in one place. They were emerging from the heavy fog that was still hovering over the Neckar River.

"Going to work", Neckar River, Tübingen (black and white)

So many swans, Tübingen (black and white)

Swans in the fog, Neckar River, Tübingen

I have been amazed that there are always quite a few swans swimming around on the Neckar, usually they are spread out in different places, with only a few in any one location at a time. But I guess I spotted them just as they headed off to “work” — their work being posing for all the tourists taking photos of them, of course. I had time for only a few quick photos before dashing off so I wasn’t late to class.

Note that the swans were all on the move the whole time. Maybe they were running late, too. 😉 Anyway, that fact, combined with the fog, puts the swans in kind of “soft” focus in these photos – it’s not any effect I applied later on the computer.

BTW, I’ve titled this post a “bevy of swans”. “bevy” in English can mean a group of like things in general (a bevy of girls, a bevy of deer, etc.). According to some online dictionaries, bevy is also the proper term to use for a group of swans in particular; e.g. you have a gaggle of geese, a flock of birds, and a bevy of swans.

However, other online references say that a group of swans is a “herd”. Is it just me, or do other native speakers associate “herd” with animals that have 4 legs?

But anyway, it was a big bunch of swans swimming on the Neckar, whatever you really call that. The one thing I know that it was not was a “wedge” – that’s term used for swans in flight. The fascinating things one find out when reading dictionaries online…