Sunday, June 10, 2007
New Neighbours Moved In
We've had a new neighbour move in across the road from us. This is an unusual neighbour however. She stays outside all day and all night! She has become quite popular in the neighbourhood, drawing many visitors to her new home, and it is not because she doesn't wear any clothes! Our new neigbour is a trumpeter swan. She arrived a few weeks ago much to the surprise of everyone. There is a pond across the road from us and she has taken up residence there. There are more people than usual going for walks around the pond. She seems to quite like the attention or perhaps it's the bread that some bring to her. The kids really love going to see her on our nightly walk around the pond. There is also a family of ducks sharing this residence. Seems that this neighbourhood is for the birds!
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2 comments:
We loved the pictures of the swan, we have a pair on a lake near us, soon we will see the signets no doubt. Also we have a pair of ducks who have laid a dozen eggs under a bush near by, Mum sits all day on them as Dad patrols the street and quacks if anyone dares to come near!!! Love the O'C family blog, thanks Simon. Wendy and Richard in NJ
I received the email below after I reported this swan to the Trumpeter Swan Program Coordinator. Thought you might like to read it.
Hi Simon,
Sorry for the delay in responding to your email. Thank-you for reporting your Trumpeter Swan sighting to Wye Marsh! Receiving information about Trumpeter Swans and their wing tag and leg band numbers (if present) allows us to track the migration and movements of these swans and to gain useful information about their life habits that have been previously unknown.
As I understand, swan 545 has left the pond that you were speaking of. The following is an excerpt from an email sent to me by a swan program volunteer who knows the history of 545, whose name is Miss Wasi. I hope you will enjoy it:
“In an isolated place East of Powassan, Ontario called Bear Mountain, a couple were picking blueberries and as they tell it this HUGE white bird with yellow things flapping on its wings circled over them, landed and started running directly at them.
They threw their buckets and ran for their camp. They managed to get the numbers off the wing tags and called the MNR. They left their contact phone number with the MNR and returned to Windsor. Eventually I was able to contact them and when they relayed their story to me they expressed their surprise that a swan would be so interested in blueberries.
I thought for a moment and then asked them what colour their blueberry picking bucket was. When they told me white could hardly contain myself. All the volunteers in the trumpeter swan reintroduction program feed the swans whole, untreated corn in white buckets.
This bird obviously spotted the white bucket while SHE was flying overhead and figured there was a great snack just sitting in the desolated bush waiting for her.
She left Bear Mountain and traveled approximately six miles north east, landing in Wasi Lake (Thus the name Miss Wasi) and adopted a gentleman by the name of Ron Blackhall. Ron was doing a lot of landscaping around his home on the shores of Wasi Lake and she decided he needed an assistant and she set up housekeeping in the little estuary near the corner of his home.
Ron and Miss Wasi have been going steady for four years now and he is sadly sitting at the estuary waiting for her return. She spends all her summers with him and then she goes to LaSalle Park Marina in Burlington and spends her winters with me.
Miss Wasi’s comings and goings are always headline news in the northern newspaper and she has quite the fan club.
This very morning, before I received your news my husband and I were continually being questioned by area locals (we are presently up north) as to her location, while we were having breakfast at the local general store in Astorville. She is quite the celebrity and well known for about a 30 mile radius.”
Please feel free to report any future Trumpeter Swan sightings to us again!
Take care,
Renée Fountain
Trumpeter Swan Program Coordinator
Wye Marsh
705-526-7809
www.wyemarsh.com
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