When Terry and Greg Tellier were alerted by neighbours to a stranded moose near their house, they quickly rushed to its rescue.
But as the walked up to the snowy field, they noticed it definitely wasn’t a moose. Instead, they saw a large white bird resting.
It turned out to be a young tundra swan.
The Tellier’s were worried about the lonesome swan because they usually stay with their families.
“Swans overwinter in the Okanagan Valley in shallow open water,” Terry said.
“They usually like to take off from water and run 15 to 20 feet into the wind to lift off, so land to air flight must be more difficult for them.”
The bird flew away later that afternoon as the Telliers kept an eye on it to make sure it wasn’t injured.
“We had a couple of other people watching and letting us know what the swan was doing. We didn’t know if we might have to go into rescue mode as we did this past summer with the loon rescue,” Terry said.
But the Tellier’s bird-watching story has another comical turn.
The next day, they realized Greg had misheard his neighbours because he had a cold.
They told him a “goose” was in the field, not a moose.