Was fairly busy today with various things and ended up running late so had to hurry to get to UAS in time for class, but still thought it worth taking a couple of minutes to enjoy the Trumpeter Swans that flew in and landed at Crescent Harbor. We were walking along the harbor by the cruise ship lightering float when I heard a brief honk and noticed four swans flying over the Lincoln Street side of the harbor coming from the direction of Totem Park. I thought they might fly over to Swan Lake, but instead the banked left towards us and landed in front of the lightering float.
As I walked down the ramp to see about getting a picture, they swam over to check me out as well – so I suspect they’ve been getting handouts somewhere. I took a few pictures and they seemed to decide I wasn’t offering anything they were interested in, so started swimming away. As I was heading back up the ramp, the kids asked about going down to get a better look, so I let them. The swans came back a little closer to make sure they didn’t have anything as well. Rowan told me it was the closest she had ever been to a swan and Connor said they just about could have reached out and touched them.
It’s been a good year for swans along the road system. There have been as many as 12 at Starrigavan – where they seem to stay pretty consistently. At various times I’ve heard of other swans being seen at Jamestown Bay, Thimbleberry Lake, Swan Lake, and now Crescent Harbor. I saw 11 swans at the upper end of a largely frozen Thimbleberry Lake yesterday, and I suspect these 4 I saw today were part of that bunch. I’m not sure why the swans at Starrigavan would tend to stay put more, while these others are apparently more inclined to move around.
Weather today was overcast with little precipitation through daylight hours. This evening it did start raining, however. Winds were calm in town, though it appeared there might be a breeze out of Silver Bay into Eastern Channel when I looked that way from Crescent Harbor.
