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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Death Of A Swan

The Phantom Photographer emails re: this photo: "I went to the jet boat races in St. Maries (over the weekend).  On my way back is was driving off the main road around one of the Lakes.  I saw a swan that looked sick on the side of the lake.  I took some photographs from the car window.  It looked sick.  I drove down the road a ways to a boat ramp then turned around and retraced my way back to the place where the white swan had been sitting on the shore.  By this time the swan was dead.  I took some more pictures from the roadway and then left.  Upon further enquiry I learned that the swans dive in the water and get into the sediments that contain lead.  This results in their death from lead poisoning.  The other birds do not have the same feeding routine so they are not as susceptible to the lead contained in the lake.  I was told by a man who had been fishing those lakes for forty years that this had been going on every spring for fifty years or more.  It is just sad."



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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