All's well that ends well

May 9th, another visit to Belle Isle and possibly my last for this spring, especially as I feel I have basically lived there this past six weeks.  Time to move on and prepare for an upcoming birding trip in Europe.  More to come about that sometime in June.  If I can snatch another Belle Isle visit in the next week great, but for now it's sayonara (さよなら).  Will return in June when dragonflies are flying

My May 9th visit had a surprise element.  I came upon my fishing lure hooked Mute Saw again in the Nashua Canal in the exact same location only on the other side of the canal nearer to the athletic building.  The bird was tucked up and sleeping.  I almost left it at that but then a Great Lakes Water Authority truck arrived and a guy began checking the pump (that's the big metal box where water discharges into the canal on a fairly regular basis -  I apologize, one has to be well-acquainted with Belle Isle for this information to have any significance).  Both the arrival of the GLWA guy and my presence startled the swan awake and, wait, no fishing lure hanging from its bill!   I looked at the bird closely.  It was surely the same bird.    Here it was, a single Mute Swan in the exact same location as it had been the day before.  When I got home I studied my pre and post photos carefully.  I tried to make a pre and post side-by-side photo of the bird's head and neck but I couldn't figure out the process for doing this. 

Sans fishing lure.

I have three thoughts as to how the swan rid itself of the fishing lure.  1.  The lure dislodged on its own during the bird's feeding or preening activities.  2.  A good samaritan saw this swan, somehow captured it and removed the fishing lure.  3.  A DNR park employee was also monitoring the bird and found an opportunity to do the same thing.  

Surprised and pleased by this outcome, I left the bird as I found it.  Hopefully, and for a final time, fishermen, don't cut the line! 

All's well that ends well.  Thank you William Shakespeare.

 

Add-on later today

In the May 12 & 19, 2025 double-issue print edition of The New Yorker magazine, Ian Frazier has published Pigeon Toes: How humble birds brave the city on bare feet, pages 28-32.  On-line, from May 5th, 2025, the same essay is titled Pity the Barefoot Pigeon.  Birders know how dangerous humans are to birds in both big and small ways.  Frazier's essay takes this to a different level with birds we think we despise.  I challenge readers to read the essay.  My hunch is that you will no longer despise pigeons.  I have a good friend with a deep compassion for pigeons.  She says, "they are domestic birds."  I've never despised pigeons per se, but I learned things I never knew and now feel much more compassion for them.