swans

[persson]

When swans sleep, how do they manage to stay in one position in the water( that is they do not appear to get any closer to a lake's edge) even in the stiffest of winds?

[classy]

Do they really sleep in the middle of a lake? I thought they went into the reeds, as it were, for a kip.

[persson]

Not the ones I watched tonight. Heads tucked under their wings about 30/40 feet from the edge of the loch, out in the open with a fair wind blowing but they managed to stay in the same position in the water!

[Buffy]

Maybe their feet are still paddling underneath the water. They may remain in their tucked-up position even when they wake up a little to paddle their feet. Or, maybe they are sitting on top of a patch of vegetation that helps to keep them from drifting away. Or, perhaps the surface of the lake doesn't have waves, despite the wind. If the wind isn't making any waves on the water, then the swans wouldn't move. Also, swans are rather streamlined creatures, so any wind may just blow around their bodies without affecting them.

[davver]

Further to the last point, in a strong wind a herd of cows will always face into the wind (this kind of thing is one of the ways pilots/parachutists can tell wind direction), so maybe the same is true of swans. By the way, the collective noun for swans is a bevy, unless they are flying, in which case it is a wedge.

[xyzzy@bok]

odd that buffy, cos horses stand with their backs to the wind. May be a good way to differentiate between horse and cow at a distance; well you would need to or you wouldn't know the wind direction for sure.