I am thankful this is the last weekend of Winter, not that it means that we have turned a corner or anything; no, it simply means we are two days away from the calendar proclaiming it as the “First Day of Spring” – I am a realist.
Here in Southeast Michigan, Winter is not over yet and it wouldn’t surprise me if Mother Nature had another go-around with us as to the white stuff. I still have snow in my front and back yards, and you saw snow on the roof of the Little Red Schoolhouse in yesterday’s photos from Heritage Park. There are contests in this state’s Upper Peninsula where people guess when the final snow melt will occur and the Coast Guard ice-cutters up in Lake Michigan will be in service for at least another month. This short video will show you how the Coast Guard ice cutters plow through the ice-filled waters near the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. They’ll carve out a trail for the freighters during the shipping season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbjb_eHJxhY
The temperature reached 60 degrees today! I didn’t partake in all that warmth and sunshine, however, as I decided to walk at my usual time and it was still nippy out. The ice still covered about 75% of the Ecorse Creek as it winds parallel to Council Point Park’s walking path. I really enjoy the peace and solitude of the Park in the early morn, along with its subtle noises like the songbirds and downy woodpecker, and even the geese or ducks raising a racket in their natural habitat, and I was the only human there for the first hour of my walk.
In the first loop, I fed my furry little pals and took a few pictures of them enjoying their peanuts, and scurrying away to hide a few more, but, the geese and ducks were not around so I put the camera away.
The landscape is so blah at the Park right now. It is a mixture of browns and ochres mostly. The Canada geese blend into the brownish-gray water as do the female mallards. On a sunny day, the glint of the greenish-teal head of a drake will quickly capture your attention. The straw-colored pampas grass waving in the wind, the many cockleburs and last Fall’s leaves embedded in the dead grass or underbrush, make for a boring backdrop to any photos I take in late Winter/early Spring at this venue.
So, when I saw a very large mute swan in the Creek in loop number two of the perimeter path, it caught my attention.
The white body, graceful neck and bright-orange bill … well it certainly stood out in the blah background as you see in the photo above. Quickly I dug out the camera, hoping to get a few shots for today’s blog post.
What I didn’t expect to see, until I ventured closer to the Creek banks, was that the swan was having difficulty plowing through the Creek’s icy surface. Obviously my memory was poor as to what happened the last time I tracked a mute swan down to the water’s edge, and he got out of the water and chased me down. I hurried over anyway to catch a glimpse of this beautiful bird up close.
I could see the swan had cut through a swath of ice already, leaving a watery path in its wake. But, as large as the swan was, it was having difficulty in its role as “the ice-cutter” and I watched it pummel the ice with wide webbed feet, kicking and struggling to push itself forward through the ice. You can see the ice in front of it with its body in the water, feet kicking furiously.
On occasion, it even used its long orange beak to help chip the ice away, or perhaps guide it through these icy straits.
I was amazed. A couple of times the swan saw me glimpsing at it, but stayed on task, and finally, with a huge push of its massive feet, it was propelled over to the Creek bank, where it climbed up.
Once up the Creek bank, it stood within a few feet of me, as if it didn’t know what to do now that it had reached landfall. You can see how its slender neck was soaking wet from the icy Creek where it had just emerged.
I watched it preening, as it delicately picked clumps of ice from its feathers.
I found myself feeling sorry for this beautiful creature, and thought about sharing some peanuts from the bag in my pocket when it was done grooming. But, I thought it might have a notion to come after me and I’d have to run out into the street – I’d have been fine, but the swan might have been hit by a vehicle. The last encounter with the swan, we were in a secluded area of the Park, far away from any vehicles or nearby neighborhoods.
I watched the preening ritual, wondering if the swan would just go and sit somewhere, maybe until later when it warmed up, or even fly away, perhaps down to the Detroit River, just a mile away. But, it seemed resigned to go back and plow through the chilly water once again, because it padded back to the Creek bank, down the side, and soon I heard the sounds of ice breaking as it laboriously pushed itself on its journey.
I sure was impressed with this feathered ice-cutter and believe it would give the Coast Guard contingent a run for its money.
I am sure the swan welcomes Spring weather as much as I do. I added another five miles to my tally under a brilliant blue sky and a welcome sun.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Aww! This beautiful creature must be feeling cold. Poor thing! 😩
Not to worry Spring is around the corner. 🌺😀
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It sure was beautiful. I felt sorry for it, trying to plow through that thick ice.
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I know! 😔
You mentioned in your last post that Swan feathers are always white. 🦆I wonder why.
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I wonder why too because the water in that Ecorse Creek is brownish gray – not clear at all. He must use bleach to stay white like that 🙂
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Lol! 😆
I think it has something to do with their feather pigments reflecting spectrums of light. ☀️
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That makes sense – his (or her) neck is more yellow, probably from dunking it in the water. They are so graceful.
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That explains it! 👌🏽
They are indeed graceful.🦆🌺😊
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🙂
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What an ice breaker even with its web feet. In your area, do they allow for the mute swan to propagate if they are not native to your country?
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To tell you the truth I’ve not read anything about the mute swans. We don’t have that many mute swans here – I don’t think any other swans are native to our part of SE Michigan. The Canada geese are problematic in the northern suburbs, not near to me. They have many rural areas there, including many golf courses, and they are trying to rid the area of Canada Geese humanely. Those feet were incredibly big and he was pushing so hard to go forward in the ice. I was surprised he (or she) went back into the water again so quickly after the ordeal. It was hard work pushing through that ice.
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Those Canadian geese can be a pest when they migrate and prolific. I wonder where those mute swans are coming from? Stanley park, Vancouver has mute swans that are not native. The sad part is when they lay eggs, rangers do not allow them to hatch. Once these swans are gone, don’t know what they will replace. We have one too many ducks, geese and gulls.
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The Canadian geese are a pest sometimes and at Council Point Park, where I walk nearly daily, has a walking trail, plus baseball and soccer fields and picnic areas, so what they do in the Summer, is around June, after the goslings (usually born around early May) are old enough to fly, the Park sprays a grape juice concentrate on the grass. The geese don’t like the taste of it, and they won’t go there to graze. Then the geese lose their flying feathers so they lay low and don’t return to the Park until around Labor Day. The geese can get nasty sometimes when walkers cross their path – they think they own the Park!! But when they have their goslings with them, they hiss and flap their wings at the walkers/joggers. I have been walking there for 5 years and saw mute swans only two times in five years … in the last month, I’ve seen them close to the banks of the Creek two times and both times they came ashore and up on the grass by the trail. It astounded me … the first one came after me two weeks ago and I held at bay by feeding it peanuts. They really are a beautiful creature. I did not understand why it persisted in going back into the water where it could barely navigate, because they fly. I’ve never seen one fly, but I know they fly as I’ve seen pictures of them.
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Miss Linda……………………that is a clever title for the swan: “Ice cutter”………and the awesome video of the real ice cutter Up North…………………………………..how do I go about getting your pictures that you are talking about in your blog?
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Thanks Ann Marie – Some of Robb’s clients have freighters and they are up in the UP and they have e-mailed pictures of the boats in the past showing then encased in ice – pretty spectacular. I knew about the U.S. Coast Guard ice-cutters and have seen pictures of their work so I hunted down a video – Robb subscribed to a seafarers maritime book and newsletter for years. I figured the video would show a good example of a real ice-cutter.
As to my pictures, I’m just using a digital camera with 12X zoom. I had a digital camera with 4X zoom and when I went to Elizabeth Park with Marge one day for an outing back in 2014, she stopped on the road several times and the two of us took the exact same pictures. My pictures came out far away and hers were very clear and up close. That was my first camera and I didn’t know about the zooming feature and she explained it to me. So I got one with more zoom. But I understand from a fellow blogger that you can get 24X zoom which would make the pictures even more close-up, and, like my camera, you don’t have to use special long-length lenses like a 35mm camera. You can buy digital cameras with the long lenses though if you choose. I just have a simple camera and only take pictures on the “automatic setting”. I bet you could get good pictures from your smartphone though. My friend Evelyn takes some beautiful pictures with her phone and sends them to me occasionally. She rarely uses a camera, preferring to use the phone instead. I was in the right place at the right time with this swan – he was so huge and beautiful.
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I saw swans often in NY, but I never saw an ice-cutter one. The salt water of Long Island Sound didn’t freeze often, but the mill pond did.
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This swan was so determined to cut through this ice … it was relentless. I was worried it might cut itself on the ice as its body plowed through., It used its feet to push itself forward and its beak to try to break the ice. I thought that once it was up on land, it would just fly away, but it went back into the water again. It was not afraid of me, and did not snort or get aggressive. I personally thing it was worn out from traveling through the ice. It is pretty when the ice freezes over on the water, but must be difficult for these waterfowl … I wonder if they only eat fish and reeds, and the reeds are dead now. They are pretty large birds to just eat reeds. I have to read up on them. Saw two mute swans in five years, and now in two weeks, at Council Point Park, have had two of them come up on land … this swan was huge. When it was standing up, neck outstretched, I could not believe its size.
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Until I looked at the bird app, I had no idea swans were so localized. We saw them everywhere in England, and I saw them on a daily basis in Stony Brook.
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Someone else commented on that as well … in five years I’ve seen two mute swans and now in two weeks I’ve seen them twice at Council Point Park. I can understand seeing them at the Detroit River because it is such a large body of water. This was amazing yesterday. I was fascinated by the swan, its size and its tenacity to get through that ice. This is not that large of a park, nor body of water.
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The prettiest ice-cutter I ever seen. 🙂 Very nice close-ups, Linda!
Cheerz, UT
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Thanks Uncle Tree – this one just fell into my lap … I had figured, despite the beautiful sunny day, there would be no nature photos yesterday, save for the squirrels and their antics, and, I actually had a post bubbling around in my head on another topic, then I stumbled upon the swan. What a beauty, and I was so amazed watching it plow through the ice; it was relentless. I wanted to go help it out.
Thanks for the compliment – that huge swan just posed nicely for me once it got up on land. And behaved itself as well!
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My family were actually once chased by a family/gaggle or whatever it’s called of swans. It’s why we never feed them. Why did I forget that until now??
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I was at a park when I was very young – I grew up in Canada but live in the U.S. now … I was feeding the swans bread and they came after me, but my father scooped me up and we just went and sat in the car.
I had a gaggle of geese come after me when I took stale bread to feed them –
there were just a few geese when I threw out bread – soon all their brothers and sisters came along and got mad there was not enough for them. No more feeding the geese!
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You learn from experience 🙂 Or from others experiences…. like I’ve learned from yours not to get too close for pictures!
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I agree with you Eliza … now I stick to squirrels!
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Looking forward to seeing your squirrels! You’re so lucky that you get to see them up close… I never do :(. They’re all scared of me (I must be terrifying!). You also probably have cool birds there.
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They are very friendly Eliza – I feed them regularly, as do a few other walkers in this Park. It is actually not a large Park, about 2 1/2 miles big, and the walking perimeter path is two miles all together, one of the “loops” is where all the geese, ducks and squirrels congregate. So the squirrels know they can come running up to some of us and act cute and they get peanuts in return. They are very funny. The squirrels in the other parks are not like that, especially the bigger parks. I am pretty tall, so I would think having me loom over them, would be terrifying. I would like to see more shore birds and I see the heron there all the time – he usually bolts when he sees me (so I must be terrifying to him). Thank you for following my blog – I hope you’ll like all the squirrel pictures – there will be plenty, especially from Council Point Park, my daily haunt. I try to get to other bigger parks on the weekend when I have more time. I work from home, so get my walk in each morning before work.
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There are awesome pictures everywhere if we just look… the clouds, the trees, the leaves. I’d love to go to that park! I’d sit and talk to the squirrels and pretend I speak squirrel.
Have a good weekend and enjoy taking pictures 🙂
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I like this park because it is small and I feel like I know every nook and cranny in it … there are birds too, cardinals and jays, and in the Spring I followed a robin who built her nest in a low tree branch and I watched the little ones poking their heads over the side of the nest and got underneath to take pictures of them. It makes my day going here – the weekend jaunts are nice too, weather permitting. I pretend I speak squirrel too, but most of the time just talking to them softly works just as well. The younger ones are sometimes timid til they know you aren’t going to harm them. Sometimes just the rattle of a plastic bag with peanuts in it, will send them running up a tree, even though they see the other squirrels are unafraid. We had some hawks in the Park in the Summer and I was worried about the squirrels after one swooped down one morning … and a few months ago we had a family of coyotes living there, but they have since moved on. You have a good weekend too Eliza … hope you are not too far from nature to soak it up a little?
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I just look out my window 🙂
I never go to the park although I should. It’s awesomely pretty.
The view from my window – garden outside (It’s actually like this only on blue sky days, more often it’s grey. Though in the summer all of this would be green)https://elizareasonstolive.com/seventy-six-view-i-wake-up-to/
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I’m not sure why half the pictures don’t show, but on this one they do https://elizareasonstolive.com/reasons-blossoms/
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Both of those blog posts were great views … out your window, on the street, all those blossoms on the tree at one time – I do love that first day they open. We wait so long to see this miracle of Spring. The pictures did all show up in the second Eliza.
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Wow — beautiful pictures! That swan was determined to cut a path through that ice. Maybe there was better vegetation or fish under the spot he was trying to clear…
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Thank you Barbara – glad you liked the pictures. I was mesmerized watching that swan. I had no idea they would be that tall standing up with their neck outstretched. The other instance with the swan chasing me, it was bent over, so didn’t look as large as here. I guess it had a purpose to want to go back in the water after such an exhausting trip.
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