Left to forage, swans find old lead

It is really wonderful to see trumpeter swans return from the throes of total extinction. As an avid outdoors person who fishes, hunts, camps out, and tries to stay tuned into environmental and conservation issues, I find it hard to understand why no one considered the nagging lead poisoning issues facing waterfowl today.

Abruptly stopping all citizen swan feeding efforts was well meaning but such actions needed a long term action policy to be fully successful. The spent lead shot in the state's waters will be a problem that will linger for decades.

The MN DNR will have to have a long term plan to deal with this waterfowl ingestion problem. With long term planning being implemented, citizen participation will enhance the swans' recovery and population growth. Doing such restorative efforts will definitely put Minnesota in a natural resources leadership position in the US.

Living in Big Lake, it was an unexpected treat the first time a flock flew over my property.

I don't hunt but I have no clue how someone could mistake a five-foot wide WHITE bird for a three-foot wide black & white bird. That makes about as much sense as the hunters who mistake people for moose or deer.

Big laker:

While weighing his deer the hunter asked the warden why some deer have horns and some don't

The warden answered that the deer with horns are males, Your particular deer don't have horns because it is a cow. Just for the hell of it what time of the year did you see the swans if you don't mind me asking?

Archie Anderson wrote:

Big laker:
While weighing his deer the hunter asked the warden why some deer have horns and some don't
The warden answered that the deer with horns are males, Your particular deer don't have horns because it is a cow. Just for the hell of it what time of the year did you see the swans if you don't mind me asking?

There are a lot of idiots out hunting and they are one of the reasons we should have the death penalty

I like Trumpeter Swans, they taste like Bale Eagle!

Archie Anderson wrote:

Big laker:
While weighing his deer the hunter asked the warden why some deer have horns and some don't
The warden answered that the deer with horns are males, Your particular deer don't have horns because it is a cow. Just for the hell of it what time of the year did you see the swans if you don't mind me asking?

Deer don't have horns, there called Antlers.
I saw 5 trumpeters at Sun Fish park Lake Elmo about 1 month ago. Beautiful birds.

I'm a volunteer at the WRC and help to care for these swans. They are incredibly majestic birds, and it is sad to see so many of them ailing. Lead poisoning makes them terribly ill, it's a heartbreaking condition.

I doesn't surprise me that these swans refused to move on - they wouldn't know how. None of the flock has ever migrated. Waterfowl learn to migrate, and their migration route, from their parents/flock. It seems that we need a program like "Operation Migration" (which teaches whooping cranes to migrate by having them follow an ultralight aircraft) for our swans!

Big Laker wrote:

Living in Big Lake, it was an unexpected treat the first time a flock flew over my property.
I don't hunt but I have no clue how someone could mistake a five-foot wide WHITE bird for a three-foot wide black & white bird. That makes about as much sense as the hunters who mistake people for moose or deer.

They don't mistake swans for Canada geese, hunters mistake them for SNOW geese, which are also white. It's still deadly ignorance, and makes me angry. Swans are twice the size of geese!

This article demonstrates the inevitability of the unintended consequences that come about every time that enviro-whackos believe that they can outsmart the laws of nature, including the law of natural selection.

While this little utopian experiment does not have the kind of tragic ending as when a human child is killed by the re-introduction of wolves into an environment, or even when a farmer's livlihood is threatened in Africa by the re-introduction of lions to an area from which they have been driven, it nonetheless always ends in some little surprise from mother nature.

We have way too many enviro-whackos, who believe that it makes sense to save and preserve every single species of fauna and flora currently existing from the fate that awaits us all.

Americanus wrote:

This article demonstrates the inevitability of the unintended consequences that come about every time that enviro-whackos believe that they can outsmart the laws of nature, including the law of natural selection.
While this little utopian experiment does not have the kind of tragic ending as when a human child is killed by the re-introduction of wolves into an environment, or even when a farmer's livlihood is threatened in Africa by the re-introduction of lions to an area from which they have been driven, it nonetheless always ends in some little surprise from mother nature.
We have way too many enviro-whackos, who believe that it makes sense to save and preserve every single species of fauna and flora currently existing from the fate that awaits us all.

You, sir, are an ignorant a$$.'Nuff said.

Americanus wrote:

This article demonstrates the inevitability of the unintended consequences that come about every time that enviro-whackos believe that they can outsmart the laws of nature, including the law of natural selection.
While this little utopian experiment does not have the kind of tragic ending as when a human child is killed by the re-introduction of wolves into an environment, or even when a farmer's livlihood is threatened in Africa by the re-introduction of lions to an area from which they have been driven, it nonetheless always ends in some little surprise from mother nature.
We have way too many enviro-whackos, who believe that it makes sense to save and preserve every single species of fauna and flora currently existing from the fate that awaits us all.

I hope people who think like you are the next ones in line. We can't save every species that is endangered, but when we are the cause of the problem, we should make an effort to undo the damage.

gtVoyageur wrote:

It is really wonderful to see trumpeter swans return from the throes of total extinction.

Please re-read the article. Trumpeter swans are NOT a Federally-listed endangered species, which means they are NOT close to extinction. They are simply endangered in MN, meaning we have almost none left HERE. They are in plentiful supply elsewhere.

Still, we should try to bring them back here, as they are native waterfowl to our area. Conservation and preservation efforts in MN are outstanding. Kudos to those that do the work, and keep it up!

Auntie Smedley wrote:

I'm a volunteer at the WRC and help to care for these swans. They are incredibly majestic birds, and it is sad to see so many of them ailing. Lead poisoning makes them terribly ill, it's a heartbreaking condition.
I doesn't surprise me that these swans refused to move on - they wouldn't know how. None of the flock has ever migrated. Waterfowl learn to migrate, and their migration route, from their parents/flock. It seems that we need a program like "Operation Migration" (which teaches whooping cranes to migrate by having them follow an ultralight aircraft) for our swans!

It appears that the Operation Migration could be rife with danger and risk as the anti aircraft batteries in Missouri could axtract a ferocious toll on the intrepid volunteers and their feathered charges. You may need a helicptor gunship or two escorting the flock to safeguard the journey.

Auntie Smedley wrote:

<quoted text>
They don't mistake swans for Canada geese, hunters mistake them for SNOW geese, which are also white. It's still deadly ignorance, and makes me angry. Swans are twice the size of geese!

Snows are also smaller than greater canadas...we used to use hilex jugs in the fields as decoys...even more improbable that it was a case of mistaken identidy..more a case of poor license management..you simply should not be allowed to hunt or even own the weapons to hunt if you are too stupid to properly identify game, or worse..pull the trigger before proper identification is made...this is a lesson sadly learned by many every year...

Americanus wrote:

This article demonstrates the inevitability of the unintended consequences that come about every time that enviro-whackos believe that they can outsmart the laws of nature, including the law of natural selection.

It also has parallels to welfare in human society. I

Big Laker wrote:

Living in Big Lake, it was an unexpected treat the first time a flock flew over my property.
I don't hunt but I have no clue how someone could mistake a five-foot wide WHITE bird for a three-foot wide black & white bird. That makes about as much sense as the hunters who mistake people for moose or deer.

I was thinking the same thing. It's terrifying, the thought of people with loaded guns intending to shoot something that they cannot even identify. There should be some stricter guidelines for issuing hunting licenses, like perhaps being able to identify the species one is intending to hunt.

ZenBirdist wrote:

<quoted text>
I was thinking the same thing. It's terrifying, the thought of people with loaded guns intending to shoot something that they cannot even identify. There should be some stricter guidelines for issuing hunting licenses, like perhaps being able to identify the species one is intending to hunt.

I just love these little tet a tet conversations about hunting, by people that have no experience to draw on.

Here I'll help you a bit.

Take two white kites out at dawn.

One three feet wide, one five.(you can find them bird shaped if you look)

Have someone fly them at about 20-30 yards at differing heights.

Now tell me which is which at any instant.

For a group of people that are consistantly debriding others for being "judgemental", I think the egg on your face needs a wipe.

Swans don't survive long in the Twin Cities. Southeast Asian immigrants will immediately poach them out of our city parks.

SunShine wrote:

<quoted text>
I just love these little tet a tet conversations about hunting, by people that have no experience to draw on.
Here I'll help you a bit.
Take two white kites out at dawn.
One three feet wide, one five.(you can find them bird shaped if you look)
Have someone fly them at about 20-30 yards at differing heights.
Now tell me which is which at any instant.
For a group of people that are consistantly debriding others for being "judgemental", I think the egg on your face needs a wipe.

I'm not a hunter, but shouldn't you not shoot at what you don't know what it is? Isn't that, at the very least, the cardinal rule of deer hunting to save other people's lives? It should be applicable to hunting other things (can't you get in trouble for killing the wrong animal out of that particular hunting season?)

SunShine wrote:

<quoted text>
I just love these little tet a tet conversations about hunting, by people that have no experience to draw on.
Here I'll help you a bit.
Take two white kites out at dawn.
One three feet wide, one five.(you can find them bird shaped if you look)
Have someone fly them at about 20-30 yards at differing heights.
Now tell me which is which at any instant.
For a group of people that are consistantly debriding others for being "judgemental", I think the egg on your face needs a wipe.

Tell you what. Take a white kite with black on its "wings" and another all-white kite. Fly them at 30-40 yards and tell me if you can tell the difference between them. If not, then you have no business firing a gun at them.

Mellers is absolutely correct in her response to you. Something tells me, though, by the rude remark you left for me on another thread, that it isn't about the article for you, it's about lobbing insults at me today. That's okay, "SunShine", lob away.