New zoo swans at Boxley

They released four new trumpeter swans at the Mill Pond in Boxley on February 18th - all of them cygnets (young birds). Three of the five cygnets that they released last year are still there (two were dinner for some critter last year), so that makes a total of seven zoo swans now in temporary residence in Boxley. Here is a short video clip that shows the difference between the young swans or cygnets and the older swans. (young ones are gray, older ones are white)

By the way, a group of wild trumpeter swans that had been living at the Mill Pond for the previous three winters have not returned since the zoo swans were released......

New Zoo Swans Video

This is very rough "snapshot video" with an HD camcorder just to show you the new swans - it has been reduced in size quite a bit and shot handheld so please no quality comments - I'm not a filmmaker but I have played one on TV - actually I've had some of my video used on DATELINE NBC but that is another story...

Thanks for sharing! Quality is not an issue for this Documentary footage. Looks like a CMOS video camera... Maybe a Canon Vixia series. Are you using a wireless lavalier? I've got stockpiles of video gear and editing skills if you ever need a helping hand.

Keep the videos coming!

Hey Aaron, I almost switched entirely to video when the first nice 3-chip Canon came out many moons ago but Stan wouldn't give me enough cash so I stuck with stills. I went on a spending orgy just before the end of the year and got all sorts of AV stuff to help produce the new tutorials and how-tos and other stuff coming up this year, including three very nice mics and a digital recorder/mixer. I'm not sure what the HD video is but I think it is one of the little Canons - but the sound was just the built-in mic for this video snapshot. I do have and love a very nice wireless lav and will also use it for my programs as well as for my main voice. The other mics will be for when there is an interview (like with Wesley - by the way he gave you guys a really nice plug, in fact so good that I'm going to have to clip part of it!). The original of this little swan clip is 1.5gigs - and folks think that a 24mp still camera eats up space, ha!

I sort of think they should have just left those swans alone and not introduced any of the zoo swans. I hope I am not being too much of a Monday morning quarterback and I'm no swan expert, but the wild ones were doing fine and coming back every year. I think I would have left it alone. Just my two cents and only time will tell really.

I'm with you Matthew and I make no bones about it. Funny, but in all of the press they got last year when the zoo swans were first released, not a word was written or said about the wild population that had been in Boxley for three winters. It was like they just discovered this might be a good place for swans. I know they have to do things like this sometimes to keep the population going, but I wish they would have just left well enough alone. I have no problems with them stocking them at Holla Bend (which also got more zoo swans last week), but the Mill Pond is a very tiny bit of water and I'm not sure it can stand too many swans.

The one thing the zoo swans do bring to the table is they give photographers a lot of practice in photoshop trying to get rid of those ugly green neck bands...

Yea Tim I am with you 100 percent. I usually drive right past those swans not even thinking about taking a picture. I feel like am taking pictures at the zoo. I think that sometimes some people "hug" our nature a bit too much when it would be better left alone. I know that just about everyone has the very best intentions in mind, but sometimes if something isn't broken do we really need to fix it?

I well remember the last time the wild swans spent their winter at Boxley; there was a lot of suspense about whether or not they would show that year. Then one afternoon I drove by and there they were! Rod Kissenger was fortunate enough to have even been at the pond with a camera an hour or so earlier when they actually landed! There were four adults and one cygnet - the date was 12/30/07...ah, the good ol' days...here's a photo in their remembrance.

The water level looks pretty low in your video Tim - are they draining the pond? The swan that came flying in didn't look like he had much water to work with.

Gosh, that was so long ago! Did I have hair then? Actually the swans have been spending a good bit of time at the upper end of the pond lately, and that is where the new ones headed as well. (I did not realize until I looked at the video that there was a current in the water, and some of the swans were having to step up and over a branch that was in the way in the current.) Come to think of it the other zoo swans have actually not been at the pond at all much lately - they've been spotted all over the county.

The game and fish commission now controls the water level of the Mill Pond - it had been drained way low for a while but is back up to normal now - but they also planted a bunch of food for the swans in there and I think that may be clogging things up a bit. It is all just kind of weird, especially with all of those GIANT white signs in the way since the new swans arrived last year...

A quick elk update - the food they planted in the new property owner's field has really been attracting the elk - sometimes there are 50 elk in there! That is why he bought the property (to attract elk) - the park service paid a good bit of money to help with all of his restoration. I'm not sure when the new parking lots will be built though...

Hey, Tim. I was there Saturday and saw four swans. I wondered why they were gray. I counted 45 elk at the hwy 21/43 intxn and saw about that many more on down toward Ponca. There was one old looking elk laying down near the Cave Mtn road turn off. I went up into the upper Buffalo wilderness and when I got back the old guy was still there all alone looking kind of sick.

Didn't find much to shoot. I just needed to get out.

Glenn