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Come Blow Your Horn
| Article
# : |
18215 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1999 |
1,629 Words |
| Author
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Dwight G. Smith
Dwight G. Smith is professor and chairman of the biology
department at Southern Connecticut State University in New
Haven. His latest book, Plants, was released this summer by
Pearson Publishing Company of Boston. |
A short, sharp honk cuts through the crisp, clean air of a February morning. It is followed by another blast and yet another. Echoing again and again from the nearby hills, the honks signal that courtship time is near for the several small flocks of trumpeter swans on the lake that has served as their winter home. Swimming slowly in pairs, the adult birds occasionally arch their wings, as if in preparation for the coming spring migration to their northern breeding grounds.
The honking continues from a larger flock, consisting of first-year and older birds. Most are still too young to breed, but this is the month that the second-and third-year swans will court and choose their lifelong mates. The larger birds pair tentatively at first, then more confidently, billing and cooing and softly hissing as they swim back and forth in the water.
As courtship intensifies, the pairs synchronize their activities--swimming, blowing water bubbles, and softly honking to each other. Finally, the couples entwine their long necks, forming breeding teams that will help ensure survival of their species. For biologists who have worked hard to bring the trumpeters back from extinction, watching them now brings sighs of relief.
Swans are the largest waterfowl, and the trumpeter is the largest of the world's seven species of swans. Over five feet in length, the trumpeter boasts a wingspan of eight or nine feet. Its dazzling white body is contrasted by a black bill, black legs, and black feet. Most trumpeters sport a small, red streak, called a grin line, along the chin, and many have rust-red stains, caused by waters rich in iron salts, about the head and neck. Adult
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