Today driving home from church services, westward on 56th street here in Indianapolis, I looked up and saw two birds flying in tandem. At this time of the year you see a lot of Canada geese flying, so my first thought was Canada geese. But that thought was dispelled in a second as I got a closer look.
They were totally white when viewed from behind them and alongside them, the right shape. Definitely swans. I drove just a little above the speed limit (40 mph on that road) to catch up to them, being preturbed when lights forced me to stop, only to catch up with them again. These swans flew pretty much in a straight line, parallel to the road for about three miles, me fast on their tail. When I caught up to them I could see that their facial areas had some black. I was not sure which type of swan they were, but it was rapturous following them!
When I got home I quickly got out my field guides (I consulted four field guides as each has just a little different information from the others) to see if it was possible to determine which swans I saw. They had to be either tundra swans or trumpeter swans. I settled on tundra because these migrate through our area more than trumpeter swans. Until you have racingly followed a pair of swans in flight, you might not appeciate this as much as I did. And if you want to mediatate on this, check out I Kings 4:29-34, especially verse 33.
