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 Black Swan
Pastel and Colored Pencil on paper
16 x 20
White Storks are becoming endangered in Europe and there is a place near Strasbourg,
France where the birds are bred in captivity and then released into the wild where they help to repopulate their depleated
numbers. Storks are the "iconic emblem of Alsace", and are revered for bringing fertility and luck to any home upon
which they nest but twenty-five years ago the numbers had fallen to fewer than nine pairs in the entire upper Rhine River
Valley. Conservation efforts there, particularly by the Association for the Protection and Reintroduction of Storks
in Alsace and Lorraine, (Washington Post Article about the reintroduction of White Storks in Alsace and Lorraine)have
successfully increased the population of birds to 270 pairs.Inside the fenced enclosures of the rookery were literally hundreds
of the huge white birds, some roosting on top of the tall pedestals where they were invited to build their nest and the rest
walking around on their long, spindly legs. In their company were several other kinds of birds, including this beautiful
black swan. They are somewhat elusive but still I managed to photograph it before it once again disappeared into
the thicket surrounding the pond.
The Rhine river in that area is heavily populated with white
swans, and they can be very aggressive birds and are much larger than one might expect them to be, but all along the path
of the river and well into Germany, I never saw another black one.
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