Trumpeter Swan —
by Sari Grove

Description:

It began when I stopped painting...This has happened to me before...My eyes start to "telescope", which is a painter's syndrome...It means that each eye starts acting independently...You look left & only one eye goes that way...Some people used to think that telescoping was a gift, that it helped you to see your subject better...Either way my Dad was a neuro-ophthalmologist & eye health was & is an important way for me to honour him... So I decided to take a long sabbatical... Then, of course, this Virgo workaholic got bored... So I started feeding Trumpeter Swans...They were the only waterbird that I was allowed to feed with impunity...I joined the Trumpeter Swan Society because I found out that members fed these black-billed-indigenous-to-North-America winter-loving swans who make trumpet sounds, from November to April)our winter), & this was totally legal...I feed Red Ribbon wild bird seed from Canadian Tire & honestly, if I don't feed the smaller waterbirds first, the Trumpeter swans often won't eat...Very polite giants... Anyhow...I noticed the swans weren't nesting...They didn't have nests...They were sitting on the ice...I thought that must be cold...So I decided to make them a nice nest that they could sit upon in the winter months so their bums wouldn't get cold...From my years & years of downhill skiing, which began at the tender age of 2 & a half, I felt tremendous sympathy for those who had a cold bum...As a child, sitting on those metal ski lift chairs, often in a windy icy cold climb, sometimes alone, sometimes with a kindly skiier, sometimes with my brother, a cold bum was the only common denominator...Most of the time when I skiied I actually had no sense of bum at all- it's like it wasn't there, it was so numb... So I started weaving artificial Trumpeter swan nests...Took me 8 prototypes, & probably a year off & on, including help from kindly animal lovers who supported me in a grant request (from Pepsi)...Asking for money publicly online is a great way to get support & also people's opinions on your design...Once my prototype was public, I started scrutinizing it more closely than before...This led to a major design change... At some point, maybe halfway along the way, I asked for permission from TRCA to put a nest out on their land...TRCA is Toronto region Conservation Authority...They said yes but no goose could sit upon the nest...I was required to harass a goose off should...-- Continue reading at www.grovecanada.ca