What a treat it was to come upon this pair of Trumpeter Swans yesterday. Swans are the biggest waterfowl in North America, both in weight and body size. Their wing span is between 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters). In 1933 there were thought to be only 70 Trumpeter Swans left and it was figured that they were headed for extinction. In the 1950’s a population of the birds were spotted at Copper Lake, Alaska and breeding programs and reintroduction were started which have now increased the number of Trumpeter Swans to 46,000 - a real success story.
I had only been aware of domesticated swans, smoothly gliding across the water in urban parks, until I moved to Canada. When I heard that wild swans migrated through the Robson Valley, I was eager to see them, and did. Even though they come through here every year, I always feel privileged to spot them because they still seem so exotic.
While it looks like they are in a lake, they are actually in a field that, since our heavy rain summer in 2020, seems now to be permanently flooded.
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