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Brian McKay May 10th, 2006 09:02 AM

Swans Back Soon
 
Hello:

I have an audio question and hope someone can help. Here's the deal the wild swans will be arriving back soon and over the years I've been able to get great video, that's not the issue. The problem has been to capture that subtle creek, creek of there wings as they fly overhead. I've tried just about ever darn thing I can think of the capture the sound and now I'm out of ideas.

Can anyone recommend a parabolic type microphone setup that will work. Oh I should mention I'm using the XL2

Any help would be greatly appriciated.

Brian

Meryem Ersoz May 10th, 2006 09:18 AM

hi brian: back before there was a dvinfo wildlife forum, there was this bulky, unwieldy thread, which led to the public uprising that you now know as the wildlife forum. somewhere towards the middle/end is a discussion of parabolic mic setups. if my memory serves, try a member search on jeff sayre. i think he da man with the parabolic moves....

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=36868

Brian McKay May 10th, 2006 12:09 PM

Meryem:

Took you advice and did some reading....but came to the conclusion that maybe the parabolic isn't the way to go. It will be a single person shoot and from the research you suggested most are saying that the parabolic is better suited to a multi person outing.

I'm back to square one, any others have ideas.

Brian

Glenn Davidson May 10th, 2006 12:42 PM

Wireless Lavs?

Brian McKay May 10th, 2006 02:06 PM

The lavs I have are black and skin tone....do they come in white. Second I can only think of one place to put the transmitter and I'm not sure if the swans would be very receptive to that idea.

Brian

Meryem Ersoz May 10th, 2006 02:54 PM

wireless lavs...that's pretty funny.

have you considered capturing sound and image separately, then synching them in the editor? it might be easier to focus on just one thing which is challenging to capture, rather than two challenging things simultaneously. it should not be too difficult to synch wing sounds with bird images. that way you can focus on getting your sound source as close as possible without the imposing camera, which seems to intimidate some birds. you could probably do this with a decent shotgun and a decent recorder (i tend towards minidisc, myself) and not be obtrusive...

Brian McKay May 10th, 2006 06:57 PM

That's worth a try.

Thanks Brian

Phil French May 11th, 2006 01:06 PM

Hi Brian, I might have some audio for you to superimpose over your footage. I will look tonight when I get home - if you are interested.

Brian McKay May 11th, 2006 02:21 PM

Hello Phil:

I may take you up on the offer, but you know the deal "A love of the challenge" LOL. The plan is to load up the sled and Skidoo this evening and head up the coast to see what's moving about. Probably another week or two before the swans arrive but I want to scope out my blinds and see if hey survived the winter. It's been a long winter as always so I'm itching to get back outdoors and do some serious shooting rather than going blind from editing last years captures.

Again thanks for the offer and yes I may take you up on it....if all else fails.

Brian

Phil French May 11th, 2006 03:21 PM

Sounds like a great adventure. The tundra swans have already passed through our country (the last of them left about a week ago). So they will be there soon enough. Have a great trip!

Brian McKay May 11th, 2006 03:46 PM

Hello Phil:

Excellent information, if they left your area a week ago then I may be lucky enough this weekend to see a few. We saw a few cranes last weekend so usually a week of two later and the swans and geese will start to arrive. We still have a few carabou hanging around but there fairly ragged after the winter and no horns yet.....not much to look at LOL. The hope this weekend is to get some footage of the swans and maybe some seals sunning on the ice if we're lucky enough to get sun that is.

Have a good weekend....I hope to have something to report on Monday.

Brian

J. Stephen McDonald May 11th, 2006 08:03 PM

Tundra Swan Audio
 
Brian, I've been making videos of Tundra Swans since before they got their current name. We have several thousand here near Eugene from November to March each year and at night, as many as 1,300 sail in low over a dam to roost on a large reservoir. I've been able to capture their subtle little vocalizations as well as the creaking of their wing feathers, using a pair of shotgun mikes on a stereo rack on my camcorders. I started with a pair of Sony Z-200 mikes and a dozen years ago got a pair of Audix UEM-81C mikes, which are 19-inch, hypercardioid XLRs. However, by being in the right place, just under their flight path, I've gotten good audio using nothing more than the built-in mikes on cameras such as a Canon A-1 Digital and a Sony VX2100. Having a quiet environment, with no outside wind or urban noises, is just as important as having good mikes. One time, I crawled on my belly for a mile across mudflats, to get right into their midst, as they socialized and caroused late into the night. I used my two Z-200 mikes on a small analog tape recorder and got an hour of their private conversations, revealing a language more complex than you'd ever imagine from ordinary approach distances.

I once rescued a Tundra Swan cob that had his humerus wingbone cracked by a BB shot. I was able to surgically bind the crack together and immobilized his wing for a long period. The next August, after his molting period, he was able to fly again and hopefully rejoined his mate the next Fall. Their intelligence allows them to quickly assess such circumstances and he became tame and trusting on his small recovery pond. He was eating grain from the hand of his caretaker within two weeks and I learned much of his language of small combinations of sounds. A similar experience is described in the book "Sandy", by Dayton O. Hyde, about an injured Tundra Swan (Whistling Swan), that he rescued and treated on his ranch in Oregon. If I hadn't had this personal experience of the rapid recognition they make of a friend and the trust they show, I wouldn't have believed what he wrote in the book.

We have been blessed by an increasing Winter population of Trumpeter Swans in Oregon and are seeing them farther south each year in our state. These are from the Alaska-British Columbia population, many of which have been wintering in the Skagit Valley of Washington State for the past three decades. It's not uncommon to find one or two mixed in the Tundra Swan flocks and we expect that flocks of twenty or thirty Trumpeters will be coming down to our area in a few years.

I envy you, being in their nesting grounds and seeing the other half of their lives. If you have problems with wind noise there, you might look into some large, fuzzy windsocks to minimize the problem. Visit the audio forum on this group for more details on this. Good luck.

Brian McKay May 15th, 2006 11:57 AM

Hello Guys:

Well the trip up the coast on the sea ice was uneventful, some wet areas and a bit of slush here and there but nothing to severe yet. The trip took about 2 hours so by the time we got settled in it was time to grab some shut eye. Woke up Friday morning to the sound of geese flying over still much to high to grab any footage. Only saw one swan which was off in the distance but it's a sign that they will soon be in and nesting.

I did get some footage on seals sunning on the ice, the young ones are out and about so all footage was taken from a distance....mom is keeping an eye out for anything that moves.

Received word via radio that there was a large male polar bear in my vacinity so I spend most of the day Saturday tracking him....by the looks of his tracks he was moving fast and covering a lot of ice so needless to say I had no luck in finding him, maybe next weekend.

Other than that not much to report, we'll head back up next weekend by skidoo. I feel confident we'll get the swan footage then for sure.

The following week the plan is to go up for ten days, that trip will be by helicopter for sure, the cracks in the sea ice will be much too wide to cross by then.

Stephen thanks for the ideas and great insight into the life of the swans I'll get the footage and audio I'm sure....or get eaten by a bear trying LOL.

Brian

Phil French May 15th, 2006 06:51 PM

You saw polar bear tracks in the snow, so you decided to go in the same direction?!!!

Brian McKay May 16th, 2006 06:57 AM

Hello Phil:

When you put it that way it does sound a bit crazy LOL. Believe me I have no death wish LOL. I have absolute respect for them that's for sure but the opportunity to film one in the wild is a rare thing.

One has to look at it this way. When I was shooting the seals on the ice there was a better chance of getting attacked then if following his tracks. When your filming the seals your consentration is on the seals and the camera not completely on your surroundings. Secondly the bears are also looking for the seals not for taking pictures but for lunch. When I was following the tracks I more or less know where the bear was....he's in front of me and going in the opposite direction as well your sences are completely set on your surroundings and your looking in every direction searching.

On top of that I have a very simple rule....never ever, ever leave the camp without a rifle on your back be it spring, summer winter or fall. My camp is located on a small river that flows into Hudson Bay, the camp proper is about one quarter of a mile from the high tide line so no matter what time of year there is the posability of bears being in the vacinity.

Brian

Phil French May 16th, 2006 09:34 PM

My dealings have always been with grizzlys or black bears and most of them chance encounters. The difference with these types of bears is that for the most part, they are not hunting, but foraging and they are just as interested in avoiding me as I am them. Then again - I'm not armed (except maybe some pepper spray or a truck!)

I have some black bear footage and a couple of seconds of bad grizzly footage. I am hoping to get some better grizzly footage this year.

It sounds like you lead an interesting life up there and I look forward to hearing more about your adventures.

p.s summer has come early here and we are getting beautiful warm weather - I'm off to Kootenay Lake B.C. next week.

Brian McKay May 16th, 2006 11:25 PM

Good Evening Phil:

Life up here is indeed interesting, the opportunities to film wild life are second to none. But to venture out on the tundra or ice without a rifle is absolutely fool hardy, life can be short enough thank you very much.

You mentioning the grizzles brings to mind a very interesting story that was on the local news a short while back. It seems that a sports hunter from the US recently shot a polar bear but following some close investigation it was discovered that the bear was a half cross between a polar bear and a grizzley. The pictures I saw were of an off white yellowish bear with the typical grizzley hump. From the report it seems this isn't uncommon in captivity but this was the first reported case in the wild.

The darn problem with the polar bear is that he will hunt you if given the chance and yes he will eat ever single bit of fat on the body....treats it like it's a seal. Unfortunately we do have a few attacks each year most all of which end in the death of both parties, the hunter and the hunted.

We have two cabins one up the coast that I mentioned in previous posts and one inland on a lake both give me different opportunities to film....one the opportunity to film birds, seals and the bears while the other is for carabou wolves and foxes.

However like most of us my work gets in the way of my play time LOL.

Later Brian

J. Stephen McDonald May 19th, 2006 05:46 PM

Rankin Inlet on OLN Today
 
Brian, I just now watched a TV program showing Nunavut and Rankin Inlet.
The wildflowers were beautiful, but there were no trees. It showed big Arctic Char being caught, then dried and eaten raw. Huge herds of Caribou were running across the tundra. I think I was intended to live in such a place, but civilization swept over my home grounds, before I was born.

The program was about the tragic story of the hockey player, Terence Tootoo, his brother, Jordin and the rest of their family. I imagine you must know them.

The title of the program was: "Team Spirit: The Tootoo Story". It will likely be repeated a few times on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), a cable channel.
The next showing I see on my schedule, is next Friday, May 26th, at 10 pm,
PDT (GMT minus 7).

Brian McKay May 20th, 2006 07:14 AM

Good Morning Stephen:

I'm glad you enjoyed the show, "welcome to my world" LOL. Yes I know the family very well actually the father Barney works with me, wonderful people.

Yes sir no trees for a thousand miles and my line is "I hate trees they just get in the way" LOL. However it can make it difficult some times to get close to the things we want to tape. With the lack of cover one has to come up with some imaginative ways to sneak up on the creatures we want to film.

The trout and char fishing here are out of this world and of course the landscape due to the lack of trees has that surface of the moon appearance.

The plan was to leave last evening and head up the coast to see if the swans are back but unfortunately it snowed like a son of a gun all day so I put it off until this morning. Right now the wind is howling at 50 plus creating some blowing snow and white patches so I'll wait and see if it clears by lunch time...that being said with fingers crossed. As soon as it clears I'll pack the sled and head out for the weekend.

The batteries are charged, camera and tripods packed now I just have to wait for mother nature to calm down.

I'll let you know how it works out. Have a great weekend.

Brian

J. Stephen McDonald May 20th, 2006 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian McKay
Yes sir no trees for a thousand miles and my line is "I hate trees they just get in the way" LOL. However it can make it difficult some times to get close to the things we want to tape. With the lack of cover one has to come up with some imaginative ways to sneak up on the creatures we want to film.

Brian

Here's a wild idea: Get together a team of European Reindeer (they're smaller and more gentle than Barren Grounds Caribou) and train them to pull your sled. Then, when you sight wildlife you want to photograph, use one of them as a "stalking horse", to escort you right up to them. In the old days, hunters used this now-outlawed practice. They would train a horse to slowly edge up to a flock of geese or herd of antelope, stopping to graze occasionally and not raising any alarm from the quarry. The hunter would walk on the far side of the horse and since the prey couldn't count all that well, seeing a 6-legged horse didn't register as threatening.

An alternative would be to use a team of Icelandic ponies. They're undoubtedly more trainable than reindeer, although the Sami use the latter to pull sleds and there are a number of reindeer sled teams that put on exhibitions in North America. I wouldn't recommend this for stalking Polar Bears however, as they might be inclined to eat your transportation.

Dale Guthormsen May 21st, 2006 12:01 AM

Swans/bears
 
Guys,

I am dead in the middle and wait every spring for the wans to come into the canadian prairies. I got some terrific footage of a pair making some interesting noises!! I had never really heard them before other than when they are flying. Mid april they arre here and they always frequent the same shallow ponds the diver ducks like!! I have some nice footage of swans with scaup and Cans and red heads all putting about. Interestingly, when there is some sort of threat, the ducks start swiming up close with the Swans.
here in the prairies getting footage without wind is almost laughable!!

A parabolic held within the truck out of the wind might do the Job. also building a wind protector box to shot the mic out of may work to effect.

Brendan Marnell May 23rd, 2006 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian McKay
Hello:

I have an audio question and hope someone can help. Here's the deal the wild swans will be arriving back soon and over the years I've been able to get great video, that's not the issue. The problem has been to capture that subtle creek, creek of there wings as they fly overhead. I've tried just about ever darn thing I can think of the capture the sound and now I'm out of ideas.

Can anyone recommend a parabolic type microphone setup that will work. Oh I should mention I'm using the XL2

Any help would be greatly appriciated.

Brian

Here's a link to some bird sounds including Canada Goose ...

http://www.10x50.com/sounds.htm

and another to many bird sound sources ...

http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~tony/birds/links.html

Brian McKay May 23rd, 2006 10:41 AM

Hello:

Trained reindeer and ponies.....too wild an imagination for me LOL.

The weekend went well the small ponds and lakes are still frozen but the birds are still arriving and landing on the few patches of tundra that have melted clear of snow.

I did get some rather interesting if not some what funny footage. I could see a large flock of swans headed in my direction so I lined up on them and let them fly into frame then followed them for a bit untill they settled and landed on the tundra. Later that evening when I was viewing the footage on my monitor I realized that what I had was a group of ten swans and one lone goose flying in formation....one mixed up goose LOL.

Other than that I picked up some footage of arctic foxes but stll no close ups on the swans.

Brian

Brian McKay May 24th, 2006 09:53 AM

Last Chance
 
Well this is it most likely my last shot at getting the footage/audio of the swans. I took a few days off from work and will head up the coast after lunch today and stay until Sunday evening.

The cracks in the sea ice are getting wider by the day and soon will be much too wide to cross safely by skidoo. Then we're in the stuck in town time of year until the river water depth drops then we can get out again by ATV the only other possability is to go by chopper but a 180 bucks one way it's not likely I'll do that for a weekend, for a week yes but no way for two days.

I packed the whole works this time every lens I own up to and including the
500 mm.

Wish me luck.

Brian

Brian McKay June 30th, 2006 09:10 AM

One Lucky Guy
 
The May 24th trip up the coast was just about my last trip anywhere on this earth. I post this because I know many of you are like me, out there on your own trying to capture that perfect wild life footage. So here's my story:

I loaded up my sled with all the gear and did notice that I was a little short of breath while I was hauling the gear from the house to the sled but no big deal I just brushed it off. Once loaded up I headed out, it was a great day for the trip lots of sunlight so the shadows showed the bumps etc. Along the way I saw some seals suning on the ice and lots of geese flying over so I'm thinking this is great I'll gather a ton of footage.

About two miles from my camp I started to feel a bit sick, light headed with a slight cramp type feeling in my chest. I started thinking hell did I pull a muscle or what....no big deal I just kept going.

By the time I had covered the two miles the slight cramp in my chest was replaced by a tractor trailer parked on my chest and a pain that I can't describe....yep you got it guys a heart attack.

So here I am in the middle of no where. alone with no way to get back to town for medical help. I made it to the cabin tried the radio no reception tried the sat phone.....sun spots no go. I remembered reading somewhere that if you think your taking a heart attack you should take aspirin, I dug around and sure enough found a couple in a first aid kit.

I climbed into a sleeping bag and remained as still as possible said more than a few prayers even thought about setting up the camera a making a farewell tape to leave for my wife....but realized the heck with that the cup is half full so I just spent the hours consentrating on staying alive. Believe me the time was going slow, I thought about trying to drive back but knew there was no way....the pain was way to much to permit me to drive.

Finally I heard a skidoo off in the distance, I crawled out of bed grabbed my binoculars and sure enough I could see a skidoo two miles away pulling up to my father in laws cabin. I pulled on my outer clothing and made it to my skidoo drove the two miles to the other cabin. Thank you God it was my brother in law....in minutes he had me packed into his sled and we're ripping across the sea ice at break neck speed headed back to town. Straight to the health center.....time line, the heart attack started a 2:30 PM I arrived at the health center at 9:00 PM it took the doctors and nurses untill 1:00 AM to get me stable enough to load on a plane headed south to a hospital a 3.5 hour flight later and I'm admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.

Three weeks and a couple of stints later I was discharged and am now back home recovering.

I post this with a suggestion to all of you that spend days or weeks alone on the land like I do....maybe just maybe that once a year check up isn't often enough it may be a good idea to double it up and while your at it tell your doctor about the amout of time you spend alone away from medical help.

Brian

J. Stephen McDonald July 1st, 2006 03:35 AM

Brian, let's hope that won't be your last trip out there, but maybe it could be your last trip alone. I also hope you can find the exact, underlying cause for your heart problem and be able to work out a longterm plan to counteract it. I would bet you won't again ignore the warning signs you got. I hate to admit it, but I'm so stubborn, I might have done just the same thing. After you have passed through your recovery period and if you have a condition that responds well to a good program of diet and exercise, keeping active may be healthier than lying around the house. Keep us posted about how you are doing. Many of us may profit from your experience and will thank you for sharing it with us. I imagine that we all envy you for being able to do these things in such a natural and spectacular place and will be pulling for you to be able to do it once again. Best wishes.

Phil French July 4th, 2006 10:40 PM

Hi Brian,

I just got back from a two day trip down a fairly remote section of the South Saskatchewan River and I was stunned to read your post. It brought home some thoughts that I was reminded of on my journey.

I wasn't alone this time, but I have recently travelled solo through some very wild country, where I didn't see another soul for days at a time. My back was killing me when I left, so I drugged my way through a week of backpacking. I knew that I was taking a risk, but I went anyway because if I wait for someone to go with me... well you probably know how it is. A herniated disk and nine months of sciatica were my reward.

You are not the only one who ignores symptoms when a goal is in sight and you are doing something that you love. I'm sure I would have denied that there was anything wrong if I felt chest pains - just like you.

Your story is a timely warning. I'm no spring chicken any more and you have inspired me to go get a checkup.

I hope you are feeling better and that you have access both to good physicians and facilities up there. Take care of yourself, buddy!

Alexander McLeod July 8th, 2006 09:56 PM

Steve and Phil, your comments regarding Brian's experience are very important. I generally travel in a far different geographical environment (East and Southeast Asia) than you three but I find many similarities in our plights. One thing that has aided me over the years is that my physician(s) know what I do and they keep that in mind (or at least in my records) so that when I come in with a problem which needs diagnosis or specific action they are aware of my medical history.

In the early 1970s my first physician at the HMO I belong to noted I travel in "developing" countries a good deal. That has stuck with me, or with my record, ever since. I find that when I go in for a check up my current physician is sensitive to my lifestyle and always asks what have I been doing recently, where, and is there anything she (in this case) should know before she starts whatever process I am due for. I've found that even for a standard physical exam this has been important.

Of course, something as immediate as a heart attack or a spinal injury is a particular experience but prior knowledge sometimes will help us in coping with that reality if and when it does occur.

Sandy

Brian McKay July 9th, 2006 08:01 AM

Hello Once Again:

Sandy your right on the money, all to often we take things for granted and maybe we're even nieve enough to think....ah shit that could never happen to me....well guess what it can....I found out first hand.

Steve and Phil thanks for the kind words. The recovery plan is now in play and I'm doing what I'm told, both by the doctors and my wife LOL...believe me she's now in the drivers seat hahahaha.

They say that from all bad things will come some good, well in this case it's the opportunity to catalogue my footage in a data base so I can find things....been putting that off for a very long time.

I'm considering entering Video Challenge 6 to help pass the time as well but I'll see about that....I'll need my wife's approval LOL.

Things are going reasonably well considering.

Brian

Jacques Mersereau July 12th, 2006 09:09 AM

What impresses me about your story and other's is the passion that
seems to drive you (many of us on the list) to ignore ALL kinds
of warnings/common sense in order to document wildlife and nature.
When I tell people of what it took to produce,
"An Osprey Homecoming", both in
terms of time, commitment and personal MONEY, most, although impressed,
probably wonder about my sanity.

I also want to comment about the swan you saved Mr. McDonald.
First, I am very stirred by that story. Most lay people
have no idea just how much alike we inhabitants of the Earth are.
Many birds are far more intelligent than anyone would ever credit them.
They have and demonstrate many of the same 'good' qualities that
we humans aspire to achieve. You find that out when you spend a lot of
personal time with them. Loyalty, bravery, work ethic, ingenuity, kindness,
gentleness, playfulness etc., etc.

They are not unthinking, unfeeling beings . . . just the opposite.

Brendan Marnell July 12th, 2006 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jacques Mersereau
They have and demonstrate many of the same 'good' qualities that we humans aspire to achieve.

I agree with all your observations about the intelligence of creatures Jacques. The reason I pick on and quote this one observation of yours is that I wish I had found the words myself. I know several who would challenge what you've said here but I really value this insight.

To me, what you're implying here, intentionally or otherwise, is that evolution of "attitude", "sensitivity to the needs of others", "awareness of a duty to care" etc etc has evolved right across the whole range of creatures, great and small. Is the only qualification to this that creatures only "care for" those within their own species? Or why are some dogs prepared to play with cats ... is that a sort of "blurring of the difference between us because we come from the same pad or block"? Do cats play with strange dogs? White storks certainly accommodate starlings and sparrows building nests and rearing their young within the same pile of twigs.

J. Stephen McDonald July 13th, 2006 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brendan Marnell
To me, what you're implying here, intentionally or otherwise, is that evolution of "attitude", "sensitivity to the needs of others", "awareness of a duty to care" etc etc has evolved right across the whole range of creatures, great and small. Is the only qualification to this that creatures only "care for" those within their own species?

One striking example of cross-species care and concern was told in a newspaper article I read 40 years ago. In South Africa, a farmer had an old crow for a pet. He brought in a young dog and soon, the crow became its friend. They even shared food from the same dish. Then, the dog disappeared and a week went by with no sign of it. However, the farmer noticed that the crow started flying off with scraps of food and would return shortly for more. At first, he thought that he had taken a mate and was carrying food to young ones in a nest. So the farmer started following the bird as it flew and after several trips, tracked it to its destination. There, he found the dog, caught by the foot in a trap at the edge of a stream, that had been set for a fur-bearing animal. The crow had found its friend and had been keeping it alive with the food it brought. Luckily, it could reach the water to drink.

I've personally seen another interesting example of this. The peanut feeder I have for jays and crows, is placed on a tall, greased pole, to exclude squirrels. However, the largest and oldest jay often does something quite remarkable. When a squirrel approaches the base of the feeder, the jay will pick up a peanut and toss it right down at its feet. Is it possible that the squirrel has some favor it does for the jay? If I keep watching them long enough, I might figure this out. Or does the jay somehow recognize the injustice of my discriminatory feeding practices and altruistically do this to even things out? Critics who might call this an anthropomorphic interpretation, are invited to offer another explanation.

J. Stephen McDonald July 13th, 2006 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jacques Mersereau
Many birds are far more intelligent than anyone would ever credit them. They have and demonstrate many of the same 'good' qualities that we humans aspire to achieve. You find that out when you spend a lot of personal time with them. Loyalty, bravery, work ethic, ingenuity, kindness, gentleness, playfulness etc., etc. They are not unthinking, unfeeling beings . . . just the opposite.

Let me tell a few more details about the swan I rescued, that illustrates this level of wisdom. The person who lived at the recovery pond went out twice a day, with a bucket of mixed grain for all the waterfowl that came there. When the injured swan was first patched together and put into the pond, he spent a day swimming all around it, searching for an escape route. When he realized he was stuck there, he decided to make the best of his situation and came right over with the other birds at feeding time. Some of the grain was tossed far out into the water, so he could reach his long neck down and grab it, but still keep a safe distance from this person. After 3 days, he figured out that the birds on the shore were getting more food and he hauled out and joined them. Within a week, he was coming over to his caretaker and eating right from the bucket and a week after that, he would eat directly from his hand. However, he instantly recognized me as the one who had terrorized him, by chasing him down in a boat and who had given him pain with a scalpel. He would come nowhere near shore when I was present and was always giving some swan curse words, in a low voice. I had to go into the nearby house and peer through the shades, or he wouldn't come to the person he knew to be his friend.

When his wing had healed and his new flight feathers grew out after the Summer molt, he spent a week exercising his muscles by taxiing up and down the pond. He didn't try to fly, until he knew his body was ready. Then one evening, he lifted up and flew on a straight line to the lake where I'd found him. Even though he was brought there in a gunneysack after dark, he knew exactly where he was all along. I drove out to the lake and he was sitting right in the middle. I see his calmness during recovery and his careful preparation before trying to fly, as an indication he had a concept of the future and understood the delayed results of his actions. When I was chasing him in the boat, after he'd been shot by a poacher, his mate flew close circles overhead, calling loudly. She wouldn't leave him, even though her own life could have been in danger. I have hoped so much that they were reunited when the flocks came back in the Fall and what better love story could be invented than that? Those who have studied wild swans say they recognize and show affection and respect for their parents and brood mates, all through their lives and even recognize their grandparents, by watching these same things in their parents' behavior.

Brendan Marnell July 13th, 2006 04:37 AM

sexual activity
 
Recent BBC nature doc showed how 2 mature bull elephants were transported 500 kilometres across South Africa to an area where killer elephant activity had been linked to a particular young bull elephant. It emerged that this young bull had been rescued years before when his adult family were shot by poachers. He had been put with other rescued orphans in an elephant orphanage and left there for years without the influence of adult elephants ... he had become sexually active much earlier than he would in the wild ... and he was released and soon developed into a young killer (of whatever came in his way?). Rather than put him down, the park authorities (showing considerable insight) drafted in the 2 mature bulls to "sort him out".
Over a period of several months the young bulls behaviour was changed during regular contact with his elders, he gradually calmed down, became sexually inactive and seems to have lost his killer instinct. How about that?

Does that say anything at all about "postponing sexual activity"? Or would we prefer to pretend it doesn't?


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