Document text
Extra swan threatens duckpond harmony By WENDY SIPOREN ASHLAND -- Two's company, but three swans in one small pond is too much of a crowd. That's the lesson this week after residents of the Parkside Apartments in Talent tried to release a wandering swan into the lower duckpond in Lithia Park Sunday night. "That wouldn't have worked," said unofficial swan expert Eric Setterberg of the Ashland Parks Department. "They (swans) set up pretty wide territories. It could have been disastrous." The pond at the entrance to Lithia Park has been home to a pair of trumpeter swans since March, when the parks commission decided to replace a mute swan with the native pair at the prompting of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Sunday's lone swan was put in the common area of the Parkside Apartments Sunday after it was seen wandering around Rapp Road Saturday. "We caught the bird Sunday morning," said James Greathouse, maintenance man for the complex. "It was a big white swan, in good shape, nice and healthy, and was pretty calm." He and a resident, Kristine Hall, put the swan in her sport utility vehicle for the ride to Lithia Park. The relocation party was intercepted by a park patrol officer who put the swan in a holding pen at the parks department maintenance office. Setterberg says he's found a new home for the swan if the rightful owner doesn't claim it in the next few days. But he's less than thrilled with the people who drove it from Talent to Lithia Park. "It's totally inappropriate and irresponsible to drop it off in my opinion," said Setterberg. "It's actually against the law (to abandon animals). We're not prepared to deal with more swans than we have." Every year after Easter, he said, a handful of young ducks who have outgrown their cuteness are dropped off at the park. Sometimes, it's geese or rabbits. Setterberg, an irrigation specialist for the Parks Department, winds up dealing with the newcomers. If they are sick, they are taken to a veterinarian. One year the department had to find a home for a rooster who was waking park neighbors. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA