Festivities to welcome the return of Romeo and Juliet will start at 11 a.m.
A sure sign of the season will appear in Boston Tuesday as famed swans Romeo and Juliet will return to the Public Garden for another year. The 25th Annual Return of the Swans celebration will start with entertainment at 11 a.m., followed by a parade at 11:30, from the Beacon and Charles Street corner of the park to the Boylston Street side of the lagoon at the Public Garden. At 11:45, the ceremony will take place where Romeo and Juliet will be returned to their summer home in the lagoon. “We are pleased to welcome Romeo and Juliet back,” Mayor Tom Menino said in a statement. “For a quarter of a century this event has heralded the approach of summer with the swans joining the Swan Boats as Public Garden icons known to visitors worldwide.” …
The pair of swans who live in the Public Garden's pond were taken to Franklin Park Zoo for the winter Thursday.
A day after Boston got its first snow of the season, the real sign that winter is upon us came to the Public Garden when its resident swans, Romeo and Juliet, were gathered and transported to Franklin Park Zoo. "They never want to be caught but I'm sure they are much happier at Franklin Park Zoo than sitting out here in the cold," Brian O'Connor, the manager of rescue services at the Animal Rescue League in Boston, said. The swans are not native species to Massachusetts and don't migrate, so they need to be sheltered from the cold weather, he said. O'Connor was one of four men in the water with large nets to catch the swans. Two others were on the ground. The project is a coordinated effort by city animal control officers and ARL Boston. …
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Because of the rain, the city postponed the ceremony to introduce the swans, Romeo and Juliet, to the Public Garden lagoon Tuesday. The event has yet to be rescheduled.
