{"id":32321,"date":"2023-02-16T17:32:21","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T01:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=32321"},"modified":"2023-02-16T19:53:41","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T03:53:41","slug":"spread-winged-trumpeters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=32321","title":{"rendered":"Spread-winged trumpeters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One of the most spectacular things to see a swan do, is for it to stand up in the water and spread its wings. They don&#8217;t seem to do this very often, but I wondered what triggered the activity. I think I have figured it out.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the object of the exercise. While normally in the water, the wings are tight by the swan&#8217;s side, now they are spread as if flying. But a swan does this only for a short time, maybe once (or a couple of times) a day. Why?<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32323\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/trumpeterswan230212as.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\n\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Early one morning, I then went and spent a long time quietly watching a group of about 18 swans. It gave strong credence to my suspicion.<\/p>\n<p>The day began with feeding in the shallows. This went on for some time.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32324\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/trumpeterswan230212cs2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\n\" width=\"720\" height=\"358\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Next began a session of preening. This is where the swans repair their feathers. Among other things, the swan uses its bill to interlock feather barbules that have become separated. I speculated that although feathers might now be repaired, many could still be misaligned, one feather to the next. This is where the spread wing comes in.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32325\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/trumpeterswan230212ds2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\n\" width=\"720\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This swan is part way through its wing spread. It will take a few more flaps to straighten all the feathers.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32327\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/trumpeterswan230212es2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\n\" width=\"720\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Not all spread-wing sightings were made by a solo swan (or in presence of a partner). A number were made in a small crowd. Juveniles also spread wings.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32334\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/trumpeterswan230212hs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\n\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the end, one of the greatest tests that the spread-wing was just a part of preening is the numbers. There were about 18 swans in this group and about the same number subsequently stood and flapped their wings.\u00a0<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32330\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/trumpeterswan230212gs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\n\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But, it is a grand conclusion to feeding and preening.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32345\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/trumpeterswan230212fs2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\n\" width=\"720\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; One of the most spectacular things to see a swan do, is for it to stand up in the water and spread its wings. They don&#8217;t seem to do this very often, but I wondered what triggered the activity. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=32321\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32321"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32349,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32321\/revisions\/32349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}