Saturday, March 06, 1999

Swan sightings giving wings to pilot's prayer

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BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Friday's story

        Several sightings of four lost trumpeter swans were reported Friday near the Oxbow wetlands where the Ohio and Great Miami rivers meet on the Ohio-Indiana border.

        The whereabouts of the swans, which had followed ultralight pilot Wayne Bezner Kerr from Canada to Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge in Seymour, Ind., in December, haven't been known for several weeks.

        But a Cincinnati Enquirer story Friday about the missing birds generated two dozen reports of sightings to Ontario's Trumpeter Swan Migration Project.

        “There have been several swan sightings on the route we followed,” Mr. Bezner Kerr said Friday. “It appears they were headed toward an area that we had rejected as a habitat, the Oxbow.”

        The Oxbow was rejected because it was relatively small, without enough diversity in the food supply, and too close to electrical power lines and industry.

        Several sightings were reported by e-mail to Mr. Bezner Kerr from the Lawrenceburg-Dillsboro, Ind., area.

        One reported sighting claimed to have seen the swans in a Fort Wright church steeple.

        “That's not possible,” Mr. Bezner Kerr said. “Swans couldn't land there if they tried. They can't pinpoint land. They need a lot of room to land and (they) land like planes.”

        The swans are gray with white spots and have yellow-and-black dye marks on their backs. The markings might be faint. Each weighs about 25 pounds has a 6¹/₂-foot wingspan.

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

        If the swans fly home, it could be a double victory for Mr. Bezner Kerr, wife Rachel and others in the migration project. Returning swans might breed and teach others to migrate between Ontario and Indiana.

        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 eastern half of Canada and the United States.

        Mr. Bezner Kerr's work is the basis for a master's thesis at Guelph University in Guelph, Ont. He is heartened by the number of reports of sightings he has received.

        “It's fabulous,” he said Friday. “It says people are ready to take part in hands-on restoration efforts. They are paying attention to the natural world around them.”

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

        Check out the project Web site at www3.sympatico.ca/trumpeter.swan/

       

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