Trip to Monticello

On Sunday a friend took me out for my birthday movie (Philomena - two thumbs up for Judi Dench) and a trip to Monticello to see the Trumpeter Swans.  Swans were trumpeting and could be heard as soon as we opened the car door in the parking lot.  Honk, honk, honk, what are they all talking about?  We saw a couple hundred trumpeter swans milling about in the river, on the river bank, and even up on the lawn next to the park.  Canadian geese, looking so tiny next the the big trumpeters, were waddling around with the mallard ducks.  Mallards!  When I hear them quack I always think of Burgess Meredith who played the penguin on the Batman television show.  We watched for a good ten minutes when a big group of trumpeters took off flying down river.  Others followed.  And then all the Trumpeters took off down river!  The sky was filled with big white birds and their 7 foot wing spans flying around flourishing those wing feathers as daintily as a ballerina extends her fingers.  We soon found out why all the Trumpeters took off.  Somebody was coming down the river in a black rubber boat!  It wasn't a canoe and it wasn't a kayak.  It was an inflatable one person boat.  The boater was covered in fabric and I couldn't see if they were wearing a life vest.  As fun as I think it would be to paddle down the Mississippi through Monticello and stir up a huge flock of Trumpeter Swans, I wouldn't do it.  What if that boat tipped?  It's just too dangerous for me.  And although we weren't happy with the boater for scaring off the Trumpeters like that, we did enjoy the show when they all took off.  We waited around and in about 15 minutes some Trumpeters did return in dribs and drabs.  After we stood there for about 15 minutes we saw, on the shore, a dead trumpeter lying on the ice with it's head extended toward the riverbank.  How had we missed seeing it before?  Because now that we knew it was there, it was all we could see.  Poor thing.  Despite the carcass on the shore, we enjoyed our trip to Monticello to see the swans.  I only wish I had remembered to bring my camera.