On May 1st, I
noted a TRUMPETER SWAN standing on a small island of vegetation in the middle
of the wetlands at Mile 1 Nash Road. She was industriously pulling the sedges
and grasses towards her, as if making a nest. Over the next several weeks, I
saw her sitting there, but not every time. Sometimes she and her mate were off
feeding around the pond; sometimes they were nowhere to be found, so it wasn't
certain if the nest was active.
But this afternoon, when I
saw her sitting there, I think they really meant business. While she presumably
incubated her 3 to 8 eggs, the male, called a "Cob," voraciously ate
water horsetails right near the road. I wonder how many calories these silica-packed
horsetails provide?
According to the Trumpeter
Swan Society website, http://www.trumpeterswansociety.org/faq.html only the female incubates the
eggs. The larger and heavier male's job is to guard the nest from predators. Thus, the female swan,
called a "Pen," has faithfully sat on her nest since early May. The
female lays one egg every other day until the clutch is complete. Incubation
takes about 34 days, so the cygnets could be hatching out in a few weeks,
depending on when the last egg was laid.
The website has a link to
swan identification information and a nice printable brochure at http://www.trumpeterswansociety.org/swan-identification.html.
So why is a male swan called
a "Cob"? According to Wikipedia, the word is from Middle English
"cobbe" meaning "leader of a group."
And "Pen"?
According to http://www.ypte.org.uk/animal/swan-mute-/180, the flight feathers from the female Mute swan were
once used as writing implements, or "pen quills", later know as
"quill pens" and then just "pens." Our present day pens
take their name from the female swan feathers. Other sites had no idea, so this
is a good guess.
Often, these swans are just
white dots in the back of the wetlands or invisible, so discovering the
handsome Cob right by the road, eating bright green horsetails in the sunshine,
was quite a treat!
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report
Reporter
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