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Dear Peter, and any others interested,
The Bedford Mute Swans are basically pets. A female
appeared first in August (?) of 1992, after having escaped from a
Harrietsfield (?) wildlife reserve. A Shore Drive resident, Doug
Beattie, became her caregiver and guardian, providing her with food
daily. Passersby would often stop to watch him lower a bucket of
food to the waiting bird at the mouth of the Sackville River, though
she was entirely unrestrained. I think it was he who named her
"Snowball", although she was also called "Swanny/Swanee". She was
much admired but thought to be lonely, so in the summer of 1995
Bedford residents Leila and Peter Kovacevic bought her a mate, Prince
Siegried or "Ziggy".
The picturesque pair mated and built a nest on the shore of
Parker's Brook, just inland from the bridge over the brook's outflow
into the Cove. The first attempt failed, but in 1997 they produced
six Cygnets. I was no longer living in Bedford by then, but I can
tell you that many people were ecstatic! Not long after, in October
of 1997, the father died; he was reported to have accidentally been
strangled on some fishing line. In late March of 1998 there was a
report that the Canadian Wildlife Service seized the young with a
view to sterilizing them. The runt of the brood, Twiggy, died during
the surgery, so the rest were just released! It isn't clear if these
were successfully sterilized or not. I don't even think they were
banded! It would be interesting to know more about this. Obviously a
feral population shouldn't be allowed to develop, but how should that
be managed?
Subsequently a juvenile swan, thought to be one of the
Bedford brood, turned up at the New Minas sewage ponds; I remember
seeing it on one of Jim Wolford's pond-hopping field trips. I think
it was still in the area for the 1999 Wolfville Christmas Bird
Count. Three others dispersed, and were not heard of again. However
one remained with mother, and they behaved like a pair. Snowball
continued to nest and act broody after Ziggy died but I heard that
the "sterile" eggs were always removed to release her from tending
them. This always made me wonder if the other bird, who was her son,
was indeed sterile, or if the egg removal was a less invasive way of
limiting the population. She died in June 2003. An obituary by Paul
Fraser in the Daily News (06/11/03) for "Bedford's most famous
feathered fowl" reported that "An autopsy of Snowball's corpse
apparently indicated that she died from bacterial poisoning from
salt-water mud, which caused lesions on her heart."
The swan there now, "Junior", is the survivor of the
brood. He can roam around quite a bit, but is usually close to the
mouth of the Sackville River. Every now and then one hears people in
Bedford wistfully suggest that someone should provide Junior with a
mate. I'd say there is room for some public education on the folly
of such a step.
I didn't follow the swan episode closely so this is by no
means a definitive account. The Daily News carried news articles by
a variety of journalists over the years, reporting on the birds. I've
drawn from those articles. The first mention was by Clarence Stevens
in his Birding column for the same paper. The Scott Manor House in
Bedford, which houses the Bedford Heritage Society's archives,
apparently has good files of Doug Beattie's notes, newspaper
clippings and lots of photos of the swans. I always thought that it
was too bad that the N.S. Bird Society didn't pay more attention at
the time. Since they weren't "countable", most birders tended to
ignore them. However, given the species' spreading feral status in
much of the northeast (as per Eric Mills' and Ian McLaren's reports),
and given that they successfully bred here at least once, it would
have been helpful if Nova Scotia Birds had documented what
developed. There may still be offspring in the province - who knows
what happened to the others?
I could go on, but this is probably too long already ...
Patricia L. Chalmers
Halifax
At 09:08 AM 02/02/2008, you wrote:
>Hi, all-
>
>A friend new to the area remarked on seeing a Mute Swan in Bedford
>Basin. There has been at least one swan in the Basin for years, and
>I have a feeling that there may have been up to three at one time.
>
>I was wondering about the history of this. When were they first
>seen? Are any of them pinioned? Were any offspring ever produced, to
>anyone's knowledge? How many are there now - just the one? Are they
>there in the summer? Do they travel to other areas? Are there wild
>(or escaped) mute swans in other parts of eastern North America?
>
>Thanks for shedding any light on this.
>
>Peter Payzant
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Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<html>
<body>
<font face=3D"Courier New, Courier">Dear Peter, and any others
interested,<br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The
Bedford Mute Swans are basically pets. A female appeared
first in August (?) of 1992, after having escaped from a Harrietsfield
(?) wildlife reserve. A Shore Drive resident, Doug Beattie, became
her caregiver and guardian, providing her with food daily.
Passersby would often stop to watch him lower a bucket of food to the
waiting bird at the mouth of the Sackville River, though she was entirely
unrestrained. I think it was he who named her "Snowball",
although she was also called "Swanny/Swanee". She was
much admired but thought to be lonely, so in the summer of 1995 Bedford
residents Leila and Peter Kovacevic bought her a mate, Prince Siegried or
"Ziggy". <br><br>
<b><x-tab> </x-tab></b>The
picturesque pair mated and built a nest on the shore of Parker's Brook,
just inland from the bridge over the brook's outflow into the Cove.
The first attempt failed, but in 1997 they produced six Cygnets. I
was no longer living in Bedford by then, but I can tell you that many
people were ecstatic! Not long after, in October of 1997, the
father died; he was reported to have accidentally been strangled on some
fishing line. In late March of 1998 there was a report that the
Canadian Wildlife Service seized the young with a view to sterilizing
them. The runt of the brood, Twiggy, died during the surgery, so
the rest were just released! It isn't clear if these were
successfully sterilized or not. I don't even think they were
banded! It would be interesting to know more about this. Obviously
a feral population shouldn't be allowed to develop, but how should that
be managed? <br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>
Subsequently a juvenile swan, thought to be one of the Bedford brood,
turned up at the New Minas sewage ponds; I remember seeing it on one of
Jim Wolford's pond-hopping field trips. I think it was still in the
area for the 1999 Wolfville Christmas Bird Count. Three others
dispersed, and were not heard of again. However one remained with
mother, and they behaved like a pair. Snowball continued to nest
and act broody after Ziggy died but I heard that the "sterile"
eggs were always removed to release her from tending them. This
always made me wonder if the other bird, who was her son, was indeed
sterile, or if the egg removal was a less invasive way of limiting the
population. She died in June 2003. An obituary by Paul Fraser
in the <u>Daily News</u> (06/11/03) for "Bedford's most famous
feathered fowl" reported that "An autopsy of Snowball's corpse
apparently indicated that she died from bacterial poisoning from
salt-water mud, which caused lesions on her heart." <br>
<x-tab> </x-tab><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The swan
there now, "Junior", is the survivor of the brood. He can
roam around quite a bit, but is usually close to the mouth of the
Sackville River. Every now and then one hears people in Bedford
wistfully suggest that someone should provide Junior with a mate.
I'd say there is room for some public education on the folly of such a
step.<br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>I didn't
follow the swan episode closely so this is by no means a definitive
account. The <u>Daily News</u> carried news articles by a variety
of journalists over the years, reporting on the birds. I've drawn from
those articles. The first mention was by Clarence Stevens in his Birding
column for the same paper. The Scott Manor House in Bedford, which
houses the Bedford Heritage Society's archives, apparently has good files
of Doug Beattie's notes, newspaper clippings and lots of photos of the
swans. I always thought that it was too bad that the N.S. Bird
Society didn't pay more attention at the time. Since they weren't
"countable", most birders tended to ignore them. However,
given the species' spreading feral status in much of the northeast (as
per Eric Mills' and Ian McLaren's reports), and given that they
successfully bred here at least once, it would have been helpful if
<i>Nova Scotia Birds</i> had documented what developed. There may
still be offspring in the province - who knows what happened to the
others? <br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>I could go
on, but this is probably too long already ...<br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Patricia
L. Chalmers<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Halifax<br>
<br>
</font>At 09:08 AM 02/02/2008, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=3Dcite class=3Dcite cite=3D""><font size=3D2>Hi,=
all-<br><br>
A friend new to the area remarked on seeing a Mute Swan in Bedford Basin.
There has been at least one swan in the Basin for years, and I have a
feeling that there may have been up to three at one time.<br><br>
I was wondering about the history of this. When were they first seen? Are
any of them pinioned? Were any offspring ever produced, to anyone's
knowledge? How many are there now - just the one? Are they there in the
summer? Do they travel to other areas? Are there wild (or escaped) mute
swans in other parts of eastern North America?<br><br>
Thanks for shedding any light on this.<br><br>
Peter Payzant</font></blockquote></body>
</html>
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