Swan song ...

Swan song ...



The Baton Rouge Zoo looks like the perfect place ... everything you could imagine a super zoo would have.

Once the export permit arrived, it was just a matter of a few days.  Executive Director Heather would make his flight reservations, and it looked like he’d be on his way the middle of the week.  Yay, you’re almost on your way, Will O.  Happy dance/sad dance.



Just a few second of movement from the most handsome swan in the world, although I don't know how to make it stop moving.  Oh well.  Another learning experience, cept I didn't learn it yet, and the constant movement is quite annoying.

But again, yet another problem.  This bird’s second name should be “Trouble.”  The cost to ship was exorbitant, more than $1,300 to get him to New Orleans (about 80 miles from Baton Rouge) where someone from the zoo could come and pick him up.  That was terrible … the weight of Will O. and his shipping kennel is about 50 pounds.  Plus, the flight would arrive too late for someone to pick him up and he’d have to overnight at the airport.

I talked to Heather and thought perhaps we had a Plan B.  Maybe I could fly on air miles and take him as excess baggage.  It was worth a shot.

The airlines discussions made my head spin.  I spent hours on the phone … to eventually find out that American Airlines (the connecting airlines I was planning to use) couldn’t accommodate an XL 500 series kennel, Delta Airlines didn’t fly animals until March 2, and I could not take him as excess baggage since he’s a wild animal.  Will O. is cargo, although he'd fly in the same compartment as dogs and cats.

A few seconds of Will O. eating the swan slurry I've prepared for him .  Maybe it's called slurry because he slurps it? 

It appeared a Plan C was necessary.  The latest plan would be to fly him to Houston, about 230 miles from Baton Rouge and maybe the zoo could pick him up since the flight arrived about 4:30 p.m.  Nope, too far and too late to send zoo personnel.

Plan D … how far do we go with this?  All the way.  I’m in it to win it, keep my eye on the prize … Will O. in a happy place.  I’ll fly on air miles with him to Houston.  Then I’ll get a vehicle, pick him up from air cargo and haul his swan butt to the zoo.  That plan was mostly the easiest to try to make work.  The flight plans were easy, and … the cost was about $786 … much more palatable.  At least for the zoo that's paying for his flight.

But other TLC work continues even while I continue caretaking Will O. most of the time.  One of my Wednesday co-workers, Tara, with Girdy (now named), a crow found in Girdwood, thus the name.  Girdy is apparently going to become an education bird, yay.  He/she is quite the character with a number of sounds that aren't your ordinary crow sounds. 

Other birds at Bird TLC need mani/pedis, and on occasion, are even willing to mostly sit still for some of it ... and sometimes ... not!  It's just very cool to see these birds ... just sitting on glove, or in their mews, knowing that otherwise there would not have been any positive outcome for them.

Mew building was hot on the list of things to accomplish, particularly for Hal, the bald eagle, who is not accustomed to being indoors, or being in a much smaller area.  He protested loudly and often and was off his feed as he suffered the indignities of being treated as an ordinary bird.  Hal is now out in his mew and in a much happier place.