Rehabbed swan is back in the water

In the event you're wondering how Grace the trumpeter swan is doing, don't feel alone. Rehabber Elise Wolf is wondering as well.

Grace has been released back to the wild, not to Summer Lake Wildlife Management Area as planned, but in Bend with other swans on the Deschutes River below Pioneer Park.

"She had to go back to the water," Wolf said. "Swans are floaters, not pedestrians, and even though she's underweight because of her injuries, her feet were beginning to show wear and tear from being on land for so long.

"I wanted to take her to another rehab facility that had large tanks she would fit in, but, 'The Powers That Be,' (ODFW) thought she'd best go back to water - and do well on the river so we could keep an eye on her."

Before release, Wolf took Gracie over to Broken Top Veterinary Clinic where she was given cold laser treatment to her feet to heal the damage she suffered from being on land as long as she was.

Cold laser is one of the tools veterinarians are using to speed up healing in many forms of injuries - from gunshot wounds to burns from contact with high voltage electricity. The healing after laser treatment is close to miraculous, and in Gracie's case, probably made the difference between surviving or suffering further infection once released.

Wolf's arrival on the river last week to the safe haven she found for the swan was greeted by three swans who immediately came for the food she had with her - but none of them was Grace.

"Gracie! Gracie!" Elise began to call, going up and down river as much as she was able, but with no response. Then she heard a shout from someone across the river. The person was too far away to hear but it was obvious he had heard Elise shouting for Grace. Pointing, hand-waving and hollering was exchanged with a hint that Grace was upriver somewhere.

Elise went to the river trail upstream adjacent to Pioneer Park, and while searching and shouting for Gracie bumped into the person who was shouting from the other side, Simon Wray, ODFW non-game biologist in charge of rehab operations.

Yes, he replied to Wolf's questions, Grace was upstream and he could see her feeding on her own in the shallows of the river, and also avoiding contact with the resident swans.

"She would take to the bank and put plenty of distance between herself and the other swans," Wray said.

After they went by she went back into the water and returned to her safe haven where Wolf had been looking for her.

When the two met up it was visibly apparent that Elise was relieved to see Grace was on the mend - somewhat in Grace's viewpoint as well. Her feet were looking normal and strong, but there is still the worry on Elise's and Simon's part she may not be waterproof.

If there is a leak in her body feathers she will get chilled very quickly paddling around in the Deschutes River this time of year, and that's a problem that apparently won't be cured until she goes into her regular molting time around August.

Other than waterproofing, Gracie seems to be doing well in her new river environment and barely putting up with the hundreds of mallards that come for a handout when Wolf is feeding her.