A Muted Trumpeter Swan....? by Peter Reum

In my Beach Boys Collection, I am fortunate to have a hand lettered calligraph scroll of the lyrics to Surfs Up from the Smile Sessions done by their author, Van Dyke Parks. That set of lyrics has always fascinated me, and is my favorite set of lyrics from the Rock Era.The phrase "hand in hand some drummed along, to a muted trumpeter swan" is a turn of the phrase that caught my attention immediately. Being a person who has played all the brass instruments at one time or another,  I have used mutes are to temper the shrillness of certain brass parts of compositions or songs.

The other angle of this section of the lyrics to Surfs Up, taken literally, refers to the largest waterfowl in North America, the trumpeter swan, a majestic bird that nearly went the way of the moa, dodo, and passenger pigeon in the decade of the 1930s. The population numbered less than 70, and drastic action was taken to protect the remaining swans. Swans, trumpeters, at least, have the admirable trait of mating for life.  If a mate dies, they will seek another mate. They fly between 40 to 80 miles per hour, laying between 1 to 9 eggs each mating season.    Trumpeter swans stand about 4 feet high, and have wing spans between 6 to 8 feet wide. Their life span is between 20 to 30 years on the average.

Trumpeter Swans lakeside

In checking out the history of this magnificent bird, I was surprised to learn that there is no such thing as a "muted trumpeter swan." Muted swans are a separate subspecies, native to Europe and Asia. They were imported to the Eastern United States in the late 1800s, and have spread across North America. Muted swans are not capable of the distinctive trumpeting call of the North American trumpeter swan.

Mute Swan and cygnets

The Trumpeter Swan Society is a charitable organization dedicated to the vitality and welfare of the trumpeter swan. There are several threats to the continued existence of the trumpeter swan,according to this organization. Like the California Condor, numerous raptors, and other birds, it is not surprising. All bird hunters in the USA and Canada have been required to use non-lead based shot since 1991 and 1999, respectively. Birds still find lead based shot in feeding areas such as fields and near water. The lead becomes caught in birds' gizzards, and is ground down easily, being a soft metal. It then causes lead poisoning, with only 3 to 4 lead pellets being enough to cause death. Examination of over 300 dead swans over the last several winters revealed that the deceased birds had 30 to 40 pellets each in them. Over 50 of the dead swans had over 100 pellets in them. 

Other threats include power line collisions, poaching, loss of former areas of habitat, global warming, loss of the drive in the species to migrate, loss of farmland that was formerly habitat, and disruption of the nesting and wintering of the swans. Here in Montana, an initiative was begun in 2012 to develop habitat for trumpeter swans in the Madison River riparian area, south of Bozeman, and north of Yellowstone National Park. According to the Billings Gazette, my hometown newspaper, only 500 pairs of trumpeters are nesting in the USA at this time, as well as 4500 pairs nesting in Canada. Numbers are declining in both countries. Besides the cited reasons for decline, loss of wetlands is in need of being reversed for the same reasons loss of wetlands in the Everglades resulted in the loss of critical populations of birds and other wildlife populations. A similar project is underway on the Blackfoot Nation's lands near Glacier National Park, Montana.

Trumpeter Swan 

Organizations like The Trumpeter Swan Society, The Audobon Society, and The National Wildlife Federation are the front lines in the battle to save threatened and endangered species of birds. The Trumpeter Swan Society may be contacted by going to: www.trumpeterswansociety.org. Here is a youtube link to hear the distinctive call of a native North American treasure, the trumpeter swan: http://youtu.be/RzQ7HYp53Ko