Category Archives: swans

Unknown's avatar

here lies one whose name was writ in water

by

IMG_2275Keats barely moves since the drama with Shelley two days ago.

I watched its inscrutable unfolding. After the polar vortex finally sheathed, the sleety-rain wore the river ice out, opening it into feeding pools. But Keats wasn’t content with the usual fare, or maybe there wasn’t enough to eat for two swans plus the gaggle of geese vying for the same meager rations. He cautiously made his way far up the bank onto my yard, looking for greener pastures. Shelley’s reaction was dramatic. She morphed into a great rigid, full-feathered display, swimming sharp back-and-forth turns instead of the smooth, long glides of their usual conversation. Keats watched her, but kept going. He got as far as my fire pit, and then he just stood there for a few hours.

She didn’t join him. I didn’t see her go or hear the ropey whirr of her wings hauling her weight into and through the air, but Shelley’s been gone ever since.

IMG_2271Before dark, Keats went back to the river where he’s been hanging out in the shallows by himself ever since, keening quietly. He’s not feeding. Today, he hasn’t moved a feather–I would know because I can’t stop watching for this. I feel like I’m sitting Shiva with him. How long can this last?

I looked it up: seven days.

 

(the title of this post is from the inscription on Keats’ tomb at the Cimitero Acattolico di Roma in Rome)

Unknown's avatar

Keats has guests.

by

IMG_5719
Keats, an orange-billed Mute Swan who lost his mate years ago I’m told, tolerates the visit of a pair of Trumpeter Swans this morning. “Mute” Swan is a bit of a misnomer. Believe me, they can make a ruckus when anything gets into their territory. So I was surprised at the congeniality between these competitors for food and space.
IMG_5734
I was also surprised to see Trumpeter Swans at all. Although native to Michigan, a very wet place that is ideally suited to this water fowl, the more aggressive Mute Swans have gobbled up the territory until a relocation program brought their numbers down by half between 2010 and 2015. Trumpeter Swans are endangered in many states, but making a comeback here in the Mitten.
IMG_5732
I’ve never seen Trumpeter Swans in these headwaters before, nor the lake just to the south where I lived for four years. So I decided to put my coffee down and try to capture photographic evidence should the credibility of this sighting ever be called into question.
IMG_5711
They were as interested in me as I was in them when I went out to the bank with my camera and Ophelia, my zoom lens that I didn’t even need since they didn’t fly away. They glided over to the water in front of me very cooperatively. I wish I’d had Armand, my 72mm lens that would have done them more justice photographically. I hope they come back, or stay. Keats, apparently, and I, definitely, would be so happy to have them.

Unknown's avatar

a tran’quill place

by

IMG_5683

I am on the morningside of the water pen
-insula pollinated with light through pines
birch, oaks and redbuds

IMG_5274

the backyard woodchuck is Russell and
the mink is Melissandra and I named
the swan Keats but the Sandhill cranes
say their own unpronounceable names

sometimes I ponder what it means
to be this contented in a place where the
deer have eaten all the daffodils and most
of what I write is with my finger on the water

IMG_5499

I have even marked my height on a doorsill
to measure how much shorter
I become every year I grow older
and new here

 

~ Liana 5/18