Trumpeter Swans 2 November 2012
Today, with a sigh of relief, the quarter of the school year ends. My teaching grows less stressful for a few weeks. I stand for a few moments, taking in the sights and sounds of a flock of migrant Trumpeter Swans. My work stress lifts away on a subtle autumn chill like mist from the pond. It all seems so small scale, so insignificant in the wake of climate change and superstorms. There exists a great paradox in nature. While so many have suffered the unexpected setbacks of an unprecedented hurricane, I stand in awe of a single flock of swans that nearly outnumbers the global Trumpeter Swan population of the year 1910. Conservation moves in the right direction while environmental policies of a larger scale slide dangerously close to the brink. We have replaced the punt guns of market hunters with a hungry and exploiting infrastructure. While we protect the skin and flesh of our wild lands, we have begun to eat our planet from the inside.
My kids watch the flock of swans with interest. They are thrilled and inspired. Shimmering reflections from a gray sky and birches shine silvery on a calm water covered in swan down. Among the fifty unbanded adult and young swans, Wisconsin-banded birds 18P, 15P, 88U, 89K (an old friend), and 53K busy themselves in social swan talk. Twenty-ninth Lake, Polk County Wisconsin, 2 November 2012, is a place free of worry and alive and vital in the present. Today, that is where I chose to dwell.
This is so beautiful. Thank you.
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