Field Trip and Trumpeter Swans

Today, I went to Stanley Park. I was planning on doing a Bird Watching Walk with the Stanley Park Ecological Society, so I arrived promply at the Lost Lagoon at 1:00 PM. When I arrived, I paid my five dollars and stood around the guide as he described where we would be going. As he described the birds and ecological system of Stanley Park in very scientific terms I didn't understand, I looked around at my fellow birders. They were all old(ish) people, all of them were dressed in hiking gear, with water bottles and binoculars. I had just brought my little point-and-shoot camera, and I felt very unprepared. To make matters worse, this group was apparently very advanced, they skipped right over any common bird and they were looking for the rare birds.

As we set off, everyone followed behind the guide. There was a grandma-like lady also walking alone, and I thought, "maybe I can pair up with her and she can get me up to speed with this whole birding thing." I sped up a little until I was walking next to her, but before I could say anything she gave me a dirty look and pushed ahead of the couple in front of us and left me alone.

At that point, about 60 seconds into the bird walk, I decided I was not looking forward to this at all, and I abruptly turned back to the Lost Lagoon. There seemed to be many birds on the Lagoon, so I decided I would do my own (extremely amateur) birding.

And Birding I did go!

I saw tons of birds, but the most amazing to me was the Trumpeter Swan. I had read "The Trumpet of the Swan" when I was young, and I was amazed to see the magestic bird in real life. I had been watching them float around far away for a while, when two of them headed my way:



Totally unfraid of the people passing by on the trail, they went right to the bank, less than ten feet away from me:



A magestic bird from far away, close-up these swans were, well, big. Really big. Like bigger-than-a-large-dog big. And their heads were dirty-looking. As they preened and wagged their meaty tails, I couldn't help but think that one of them would make a meal for like 20 people!

They weren't afraid, in fact they were pretty agressive. I got the idea they might be trying to scare me off, and it was kind of working. Look at this picture:



See that couple with the little poodle walking away? Well right before I took the picture they passed by the swans and stopped to look. The little dog didn't even bark, but I guess he moved threateningly towards the swans on the bank, because one of them turned and hissed at the dog, and I have no doubt if the little dog and the swan got in a fight that dog would be toast.

Afterwards, the agressive swan started heading towards me, and I decided I had seen enough Trumpeter Swan and headed on down the trail.