Again this morning I marvelled at the "soft field" (water) landing performed by a lone swan on the lake outside my apartment building... unperturbed by my interested beagle, said swan was totally focussed on her performance: Speed a little higher than "normal", tail slightly low, she came in on the water, waiting, waiting, waiting untill she was fully slowed down before lowering the front part of her body onto the "field". Of particular interest to me was her use of "flaps"; I noticed she rotated her wings so that the flaps came down right at the very end, to really slow her down dramatically as she touched down.
Amazing, how these pilots of nature have complete control over their aircraft!