Ducks are cute. Swans are pretty... from a distance.

Deb's job before retirement was at a local university with swans as unofficial mascots. They had their own little island in the middle of a large pond. Sometimes one of the swans would decide to relocate to the shore, at which point students would be terrorized as they used the paths, faced with a hissing swan, wings spread, neck extended. Then some poor groundkeeper (armed with a broom or something similar) would have to explain to the bird where she was supposed to be.