[miriam_catira]

There was a corporate office park I encountered once that had a pond, and they had swans in it. The swans entertained themselves by chasing office workers to and from the carpark every morning.

... in my experience, if waterfowl come at you hissing, just look bigger and hiss back - as long as it's smaller than a swan.

[wishfish]

I once worked at a similar office park. A pair of geese chased secretaries and CEOs alike. Very egalitarian. No one was spared. All ran to their cars in fear.

But there was one day when they met their match. Another pair of geese appeared like magic. Just wandering around like they owned the place. The original pair were not happy. They hissed and waved their wings in anger. The new pair did the same. Uncowed. The original pair decided to charge the interlopers and chase them off. Lowered their necks. Went full speed at them. Then slammed into the glass doors because they were attacking their own reflections.

They spent the rest of the day, greatly humbled, swimming around the office park pond. Gave everyone a break for a couple of days before resuming the usual CEO & secretary hunt.

[gopher_space]

The main problem is that people get pissed if you treat a city swan like a farm swan, just punting it out of the way or throwing it by the neck.