Trumpeter and Tundra Swans
One more swan post, at least for a while!
I received a rare sighting notice on a Trumpeter Swan in the mix of eight Tundra Swans in a farm field, just a mile from my route to my dental appointment I had the next morning. That’d be a lifer for me, so of course, I left a little earlier than necessary the next morning with fingers crossed!
When I arrived to the location, out in the distance there sat the Trumpeter Swan, along with three Tundra Swans.
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Trumpeter Swan (left) with three Tundra Swans (right)
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The Trumpeter is slightly larger than the 20-pound Tundra Swan, with males averaging over 26 pounds, making the Trumpeter Swan North America’s heaviest flying bird.
At the area where the bill meets the head, the Trumpeter’s is V-shaped while the Tundra’s is U-shaped and has an additional small yellow patch in front of the eye.
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Trumpeter Swan (lifer #293, lifers photographed #272)
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One more series of another recent encounter (different day) of a farm field filled with over 500 Tundra Swans accompanied by eight Bald Eagles that I happened upon during errand running. Love when this happens!
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Tundra Swans
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They were stretched out so far, I couldn’t get them all in one shot.
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Tundra Swans
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At first, I spotted five Bald Eagles and a Turkey Vulture picking at what little was left of an unfortunate swan. By the time I got my lens on them, one eagle had taken off.
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Turkey Vulture and four Bald Eagles
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I started looking for the other eagle and then counted eight total, those others were each sitting alone on the ground, with all basically having the swans surrounded. Didn’t like seeing that…..
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Just a few more close-ups of the swans.
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Tundra Swans mate for life and live to approximately 20 years old. They fly about 4,000 miles from the Arctic to be here with us throughout the winter months.
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Tundra Swan (immature with pink beak and ‘dirty’ look)
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As I departed, Tundra Swan families were still arriving.
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