Dan's Papers - July 18, 2008

As many locals in the Hamptons know, a swan couple settled on Town Pond in East Hampton this winter, intent on starting a family there. All winter, everyone carefully left them alone so they could make a family. In early March, they mated. In late March, the two swans built an enormous nest six feet across out of twigs and leaves at the shallowest end of the pond. And in April, the female settled in the nest and laid six eggs. She would remain there through sleet and rain and fog and lightning storms, without leaving even for a minute, for the next six weeks. The male guarded her. The babies hatched in May. And the proud mom and pop have been watching over them ever since.

All this was done very publicly, as far as we humans are concerned. The pond is directly next to Montauk Highway at the entrance to town. Even in your car, you pass within 50 feet of this family. It is as public a display of birdlife as you are ever likely to see. And everyone very carefully let them alone. It was a wondrous thing to see nature take her course.

I think it is a testament to both the townspeople and the visitors that they were left alone. It would have been hard to mess with them anyway, because the male could be quite fierce if he felt there was danger approaching. And he was on duty 24/7.

In recent weeks, however, there has been meddling, and it's not coming from the populace. There are town employees with titles such as Officer in the State Department of Environmental Agency, and there are private employees with titles such as Director of the Hampton Wildlife Center. The alarms have gone off in these offices. And there are things to do and places to go. If the swans are wildlife and the public is instructed to let them be wildlife, it's not good enough for them.

The thing is that when nature takes its course, animals eat each other. They get hungry. There's no buffet line. There's no dish with some kibble in it.

Two weeks ago, two of the baby swans, now half-grown, simply disappeared one night. No one knows why. There is speculation that turtles ate them. There is speculation that an egret - and two egrets were hanging around for weeks when the babies were little - was looking for an opportunity to snatch them. Whodunit?

To the town's credit, those in charge did nothing at that time. There was no investigation, no house search. On the other hand, when the mom and pop swans seemed not to care that two of their six were gone, there was talk. How could they not care? Were they so hard-hearted it didn't matter to them?

The problem, of course, is projection. They were such a devoted couple. They chose the most beautiful setting in the most beautiful and exclusive town in America. They must have been very much in love. They were such proud parents. Did you see how their white-feathered chests were puffed out? (They are always puffed out.)

Well, they didn't care. The following week, which was last week, more things happened. One of the swanlets was clearly limping around. It was his right leg. It was perhaps a turtle that did it, but it got away, poor thing.

It was 6:30 a.m. when the word came in to Virginia Frati, who is the director of the privately run Wildlife Rescue Center of the Hamptons in Hampton Bays. She roused Mickey Caputo of East Hampton, who is a licencsd assistant wildlife rehabilitator, and asked him to come down and meet her there, and she also called Liza Bobseine, an officer in the State Department of Conservation. She also called the East Hampton Village Police.

At the scene, Bobseine said that Frati had no business being down there to attend to the injured baby swan because she is not licensed to do that. Frati said that Caputo was, and that he would attend to the swan, and furthermore, according to New York State Law, although she cannot "rehabilitate" an injured wildlife, she is able to "transport" injured wildlife to licensed rehabilitators.

The two got into something of a row.

Meanwhile, Caputo determined that the baby swan would need immediate medical attention, and so the baby was rounded up in a net, over the objections of the father swan, who the police kept at bay for the few moments it took to snatch the baby (after which dad couldn't care less), and then the baby was transported to Dr. Jonathan Turetksy, a veterinarian in town who rushed to his office to attend to the bird, where, after examining the swanlet, sedating it, X-raying it and performing surgery, he came to the conclusion that this baby was only going to die, and so the humane thing to do was to put it to sleep. And so, after the papers were signed by the officials, he did.

And everybody mourned.

Now, five days after that, it's happened again, to another swanlet. This time, however, Turetsky thinks the swanlet will pull through. He had to amputate one of its three toes and shorten another, but she'll get by. At this writing, this second swanlet is recovering in the hospital and will, as soon as possible, be sent home to the worried parents.

Every week somewhere in the world, according to the late George Carlin, 200 species go extinct, and every week 200 new species make their appearance. It is perfectly fine. But as anybody who has tried to go to the beach this summer and has been confronted by "Keep Out" signs because of a little bird on the beach whose species is endangered, it is not fine. We humans mistakenly believe it is our planet to take care of. And we cannot leave well enough alone.

Save a life. Do your part. Set out the bird food. God forbid they eat each other when they get hungry.