Still alive ...

... I was wrong.

My last two posts were essentially about this swan and what to do if you hook a bird while fishing.  Hint:  don't cut the line! 

This is the first time I have seen this swan after hypothesizing that it was probably dead.  But yesterday mid-day here it was again, alone and vigorously preening in the Nashua Canal west of the bridge (across from the athletic building and near the tennis courts.)

Fishing lure still hanging.  Every so often the swan shook its head back and forth a couple of times; the same behavior I observed when I first saw the swan on Saturday, April 26th.  Perhaps this is an effort to adjust the position of the hanging fishing lure.  The swan seemed robust.  I didn't see it paddling so I don't know if the listing-to-the-left, which I observed the first and second time, is still present.

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I wonder if there will be a way for the swan, on its own, to dislodge the fishing lure.

Oh, you say, it's just a Mute Swan, an invasive, non-native.  Don't worry about it.  And, truthfully, I never guessed I would spend so much blog time on a Mute Swan.  No!  This is hardly the point. This bird could just as easily be a Trumpeter Swan, a Great Blue Heron, a Northern Shoveler, a Red-breasted merg, a Belted Kingfisher, an Eastern Screech Owl, a Herring Gull (scroll down).  It could be, and often is, a Brown Pelican.  You get the point.  This time of year a Mute swan would not normally be seen alone.  It would be paired up and its mate would be somewhere nearby.  It bothers me.  I hope it bothers you, too.  

Again, Fishermen - what to do if you hook a bird! 

I met up with another birder, Lorri W., and pointed the bird out to her. By this time, it had finished its preening and was sleeping with head tucked.