REMINDER: The Bradford Landmark Society’s fifth annual Holiday
House Tour will be held from noon-4 p.m. today. From the looks of
the itinerary, it should be quite a showcase of Christmas
finery.

DEC. 3, 1955: “Rare Bird in Nation Injured by Rifle Bullet”
trumpeted the headline in that day’s Era.

A photo of three men – Clifford Charnisky, William Martin and
Roland Ackley – posing with a “Whistling Wild Swan,” accompanies
the story of the capture of the rare bird at the Bradford Water
Department’s West Branch reservoir, 50 years ago this month.

“A whistling wild swan – believed to be one of fewer than 100
such birds in this country – was captured at the reservoir
yesterday,” the story read.

“The bird, injured in the wing and back by a rifle bullet, was
captured by Martin of Lewis Run, a district game protector, and
Charnisky and Ackley, employees of the water department.

“The first attempt to capture the bird was unsuccessful.
Yesterday, the men extended a line across the water, frightening
the bird back to the mouth of the reservoir and then into the
surrounding woods where it was captured.

“The swan had been living at the reservoir for approximately a
month. Attempts to capture it were made only after the water froze
over and the bird still showed no inclination to leave.

“The bird is a little more than three feet high, weighs
approximately 20 pounds and has a seven and one-half wing span. It
is now under a veterinarian’s care.

“Thursday’s attempt to rescue the bird was made in a rowboat,
forced to break its way through ice on the surface of the
reservoir.

The swan at first escaped the men.

“When ice began to form on the water and the swan made an
attempt to leave, Sam C. Heffner, water department superintendent,
notified William Carpenter of Mount Jewett, also a game
protector.”

Our questions to local birders – has anyone seen a whistling
wild swan? And are they still endangered?

According to the “10,000 birds” Web site, there are only seven
species of swan in the world, only two of which are indigenous to
North America. One of those species is the whistling wild swan, now
known as the tundra swan. The current population of 110,000 lives
in the Canadian north but winters near the Chesapeake Bay and in
the marshes of Virginia and North Carolina. The “snowbird” captured
here must have been on its way to its winter home before being shot
and wounded.