Friday, March 05, 1999

Honk if you spot a lost swan

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BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer

To learn more, go back to Dec. 24 story

        Anyone seen four regal but “lost-looking” trumpeter swans? “They haven't been seen for several weeks now,” said Mike Oliver, biologist at Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge in Seymour, Ind., south of Columbus.

        In January, they were hanging out with Canada geese and tundra swans, he said.

        Then he walked the land, checked the ponds and flew over the refuge looking for them.

        Nothing.

        On the other hand, there is no sign predators have dined on the birds since they flew in Dec. 23, Mr. Oliver said. There are no monitors on the birds, but the four are distinguished by yellow and black dye on their feathers.

        The trumpeters' absence is not an immediate cause for concern because they might be returning early to breeding groups in northern Ontario.

        However, no one has seen them there, either, Mr. Oliver said. “In fact, we haven't had reports from any direction about some lost-looking trumpeter swans,” he said.

        Trumpeters — coveted for their meat and feathers — were wiped out east of the Rockies in the 19th century.

        In the past two decades, an effort has emerged to reintroduce them to the region. The four birds followed an ultralight piloted by Wayne Bezner Kerr into Muscatatuck. If the swans have flown home, it could be a double victory for Mr. Bezner Kerr, wife Rachel and others in the project. Returning swans might breed and teach others to migrate between Ontario and Indiana.

        Ms. Bezner Kerr said the Muscatatuck Four took to the refuge without apparent fear.

        That adjustment was “exciting news for us,” she wrote in a recent newsletter, because “the main objective of this year's research was to determine the best method to raise swans that both follow airplanes and retain wild behavior.”

        Anyone who sees the swans is asked to e-mail trumpeter.swan@sympatico.ca

       

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