So 



WIllS'll.l.NC SWANS. (<)1<M- culiiinluaims.) 



Etta S. Wii-son. mil ('liirciidnii Ave. Kctroil. .Mich. 



Thoro hns l.rcn a wniMlcrlul iiuMvas.- in IIm- nu.nhrr nf Whisllinu' Swans 

 of late years iK.ticcal.l.v since the enact mcnt ..f (he Mii^ratory I'.inl Treaty. 

 Direct iuul spectacular evi.lenc- „f this is iiiven in the lar^e nun.hers of 

 the birds which fly over Detroit an.) vicinity, and the increasingly lar«e 



nnniJKMs which remain in that nei^hborii I for weeks dnrinu the spring; 



when all shooting is prohihiteij. 



It has not been so lonir since the api>eaiance of a sini^ie swan dnrinj,' the 

 sprinir migration was a .s..nrce of wonder and uralilicat i.ni t(. tlie ob.scrver. 

 and in the fall the bird was nnnoted. 'Pwo years af,'o last .Marcli one 

 swan spent three days in tiie canals of Uelie Isle. Detroit's beautiful play- 

 iirouud. having taken shelter there from a violent storm which was 

 rasiiiR. The bird was very sliy and usually saw you first, departiu},' 

 hastily as you approached. 1 trami.ed over the island every day in the 

 early morniuff and found the bird only when the swish of his big wings 

 told me he was leaving, antl as there are about JO miles of canals and in- 

 land lakes on the island, it was (piite a task. I also saw one bird flying 

 high another morning that spring. In the fall of that year I saw no swans 

 although hunters told me that a few had been seen at the Flats. But one 

 morning in the spring of lUlO I saw two swans resting on the main channel 

 of the Detroit River immediately .south of Belle Isle. They discovered me 

 almost at the same moment and rising flew swiftly toward Dake St. Clair. 

 their great wings flapping and their feet pjiddling the water as they went. 



Later that same morning as I was tramping throu.gh the woods at the 

 uiiper end of the island I heard the plaintive notes of a number of swans, 

 distant but coming nearer, a sound familiar enough in my childhood when 

 1 lived in Northern Michigan and swans were so common as to excite 

 little interest. The weather was cold and foggy, with no wind or perceptible 

 air movement: and the birds, flying low. merely skimming the tree tops, 

 came directly over me; and I had a si>lendid chance to observe their for- 

 mation. There were 25 birds in the long wedge-shaped flock. 10 individuals 

 on one side and 15 on the other, each bird equally spaced from the other 

 and each line as accurate as though spaced and limned by the hand of a 

 master. The birds were honking sonorously, my ear catching generally 

 ab(.ut three notes, one very low and two quite high. The higher notes pre- 

 dominated. 



I spent the day on the island. The fog lifted soon. All day swans 

 were flying back and forth showing that they were not in migration but 

 had stopped to rest and feed. At one time I counted TO birds in the air, 

 the biggest flock containing :!5 birds flying in two long V-shaped lines, 

 the others being in lesser flocks and flying singly. The largest flock that I 

 saw that day contained about 200 birds flying in a long zigzag line quite 

 like a huge piece of rickrack lace stretched across the sky. 



From the first week in March until the middle of April swans could be 

 seen every day. sometimes on the river, more often on the wing: and 

 lh(\v were as abundant at the Flats as Canada ( loose which are always 



