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January 2007

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From:
"Robert S. Morton" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Robert S. Morton
Date:
Sat, 20 Jan 2007 06:03:07 -0500
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January 19, 2007. A friend of mine called me about a column by the Toledo 
Blade's outdoor writer, Steve Pollick. He wrote how Tundra Swans have been 
gathering, daily, in a particular corn field at the intersection of Rt. 
163 and Elliston-Towbridge Rd., west of Oak Harbor. We drove there and I 
counted 209 Tundra Swans. They really start gathering after 3PM. For those 
interested, head west on Rt. 165 out of Oak Harbor until you come to 
Elliston-Towbridge Rd. They gather in a large field on the SW quadrant of 
that intersection in a large field full of corn stubble. I didn't open the 
car doors because I didn't want to bother them, and remained several 
hundred yards away, but got nice look through my telescope. Enjoyed 
watching them in flight as new ones arrived. 
Here's Steve Pollick's aricle in The Blade: Tundra swans the talk of 
Ottawa County Tundra swans have become real car-stoppers in western Ottawa 
County, turning up in such numbers that it has kept the outdoors desk's 
telephone ringing and the e-mail address full. As many as 2,000 to 3,000 
of the birds are wintering here. Hundreds daily are piling into corn 
stubblefields along State Rt. 163, west of Elliston- Trowbridge Road, 
about four miles east of Genoa. Afternoons appear to be the best time to 
view the birds. "This is what we would expect to see in November," said 
Mark Shieldcastle, the state's head waterfowl biologist based at Crane 
Creek Research Station north of Oak Harbor. "There is no reason for them 
to go any farther [south]," he explained. "We've got open water and places 
to feed. Migration is expensive." Warm temperatures have drawn thousands 
of huge tundra swans to Ottawa County. Adults are white with black feet 
and bills. In a normal year, the birds with a 7-foot wingspan would be 
much farther south by this time. Adult tundra swans are white with black 
legs and feet and black bills. The abnormally mild winter here, however, 
has allowed them to shortstop their southbound migration, so they do not 
have to spend any more energy than necessary. "They seem to prefer an 
overcast day," said Lloyd Fisher Jr., of Oak Harbor, who sees them as 
early as noon and who is fascinated by the sight. "I have been able to see 
small flights of swans heading into the larger gathering in flight over 
the highway." "They're just magnificent," says Kim Danes, of Rossford, who 
has watched the great white waterfowl by the hundreds while visiting in 
the county, her home grounds. She has been seeing the gatherings about 4 
p.m. "When they're in flight they're just magnificent." John Hageman, 
manager of Ohio State University's Stone Laboratory at Put- in-Bay, has 
been seeing swans along Route 163 just east of Nissen Road during mainland 
trips. The birds are congregating in stubblefields there too. "I saw them 
on Friday around sunset, probably 300-plus, then again the next morning, 
but only 30 or 40 at that time of day. It's a field I've seen migrating 
swans use for many years," Hageman said. Robert in Fremont, Ohio
"And over the pond are sailing Two swans all white as snow; Sweet voices 
mysteriously wailing Pierce through me as onward they go. They sail along, 
and a ringing Sweet melody rises on high; And when the swans begin 
singing, They presently must die."
 - Heinrich Heine.

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