The Trumpeter Swan I Couldn’t Rescue

I’ve been involved with rescuing birds for quite some time starting back in the late 1980’s with a Great Blue Heron tangled up in an illegal trot line along that Chattahoochee River in Alabama. I grasped the heron’s bill and body while my ex-husband cut the lines. That release had a happy ending because we got to the heron in time. It had no visible injuries and when released it took off squawking and flew to the Georgia side of the river where it landed in a tree.

Trumpeter Swan close up – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/320, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I helped to rescue and clean up two Mute Swans in Germany who had gotten covered in diesel oil in the middle of winter and wrestled them in the shower in the barracks to clean the oil off of their feathers which was no easy task since the large swans were more than a little ticked off.

Somehow both the swans got through the experience unscathed. Me? Not so much. They were pretty ticked off.

It was the middle of winter, there was more than a foot of snow on the ground, the pond the swans lived on was mostly frozen and they wouldn’t have survived had the oil not been cleaned off. After getting the swans as clean as possible they were put in a location with some heat for a couple of days so they could preen their feathers and replace the natural oils that keep them warm and buoyant before releasing them. Those swans were still alive when I left Germany.

In Florida I found lots of injured birds tangled in fishing line or with hooks embedded in them on the beaches at Fort De Soto County Park where I used to photograph birds frequently. Some of the bird were catchable, were sent to rehab, and released later when they were ready. Some of the birds unfortunately could still fly and I don’t know what happened to them. One bird, a Northern Gannet, had injuries so severe that it didn’t survive.

I’ve helped rescue three owls. One was a Barn Owl that got hung up on barbed wire in Montana who was rehabbed and released in the Centennial Valley.  There were two Short-eared Owls here in Utah, one juvenile survived his injuries but was not releasable who is now named Galileo and is was an education bird at HawkWatch International. He wouldn’t have been rescued had I not spotted him. The other juvenile Short-eared Owl I rescued was severely injured and was euthanized.

I am always relieved and grateful when a bird I help to rescue survives and deeply appreciate the other people involved in the rescue and rehab.

For me it is the birds I can’t help to survive that affect me the deepest. I never forget the birds I wasn’t able to rescue or those that died after being rescued.

On Saturday I went to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge early in the morning to see what birds I could find. I was on the north part of the auto tour route near the far northwest side when I spotted a beautiful but injured Trumpeter Swan not 20 feet from the road resting on a mound of dirt next to the water.  There are thousands of Tundra Swans at the refuge but only a few Trumpeters. I could only photograph the swan’s head with my bird set up, that is how close it was.

I assessed the situation from inside my vehicle and noted that although the swan was calm that its wings were quivering, shaking as if it were in shock. A healthy Trumpeter Swan would have swam or flown away, it certainly wouldn’t have stayed as still as this swan was.

I didn’t want to exit my vehicle to get closer to the swan to examine it because I knew that would stress it even further than it already was and I didn’t want the swan to move out into the water.

I immediately tried calling the visitor center even though I knew it was closed but I hoped to leave a message asking for help. The problem is that the recording is set for such a short period of time that there wasn’t a way to leave a long enough message to:

1. state who I was,
2. state that the swan was injured,
3. and give a location.

I ended up leaving a message that basically said “Injured Trumpeter Swan near the far northwest corner, auto tour route” before the recording cut me off.

I talked to a friend who contacted someone he knows who works for the Utah DWR to pass on the information I gave him about the injured swan. So I knew the that proper authorities had been contacted. I know that there are times when you have to put the rescue in other people’s hands but knowing that hasn’t made this any easier on me.

I considered getting out of my vehicle and capturing the swan but knew that once I did that I had no way to confine the swan to make the drive to Ogden and to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah with a wild, injured swan in the back of my Jeep safely. The box I keep in the back of my Jeep year round for rescues simply wasn’t large enough for an adult swan. It made me wish I had put my old pet barrier in the back of my current Jeep even though my dog passed away a long time ago.

I wasn’t worried about wrangling the swan. My experience with wrestling swans in the shower to remove the diesel oil made me aware of what to watch out for. But these are big birds and can inflict harm.

I knew it wasn’t safe to transport an unconfined, injured swan with a 7 foot wing span while driving 75 mph on I-15 south towards Ogden, for me or the swan.

I know that if I hadn’t been alone I know I could have rescued this swan and gotten it the help it needed. I also know that if I had been able to confine the large bird I could have transported it to WRCNU.

Utah DWR hasn’t gotten back in touch with my friend to let him know if they acted on the information that he gave them so I still don’t know if they were able to locate and rescue the swan. I put off writing this post hoping for news on the swan.

As I look at this Trumpeter Swan photo and see my Jeep reflected in its eyes I feel a sense of loss. I know that I won’t forget the swan that I couldn’t rescue.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Trumpeter Swan photos plus facts and information about this species.