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| Trumpeter swan in summer on Madison River in Yellowstone |
The majestic, elegant, pure white Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) can be seen year-round in Yellowstone Park, often swimming in the Madison River. It is also a “
species of concern” here, and the National Park Service considers it the
most imperiled bird in Yellowstone. It is thought that last season, Yellowstone’s year-round population had declined to
less than ten birds, though a few thousand additional swans winter in the general area.
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| By the time they are a year old, swans acquire their pure white plumage |
Many more swans winter in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, than spend the summer here, and except for the first image above, the remainder of the images in this blog post were made in winter.
The trumpeter swan is known to be sensitive to human activity, and to abandon nesting and wintering areas if there is nearby human development. Nevertheless, this year, a sizable number of swans have been wintering at Last Chance, in our adopted home town of Island Park, Idaho. To our great joy, a small number of swans are also attracted to a small spring-fed pond near our cabin, just below Raynolds Pass and the Montana border. This is where we photographed these birds.
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| Four adult trumpeter swans |
Apparently the group of swans on the nearby pond is able to tolerate a few snowmobiles, and a few people on foot or skis, going by each day. There is no other motorized traffic in winter. The pond is half a mile from the highway and a mile and a half from the nearest year-round residence. These birds allowed us to stand at the edge of the pond to photograph them, and seemed to pay no attention to our telephoto lenses.
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| Trumpeter swans have very long necks |
The trumpeter swan is a very large pure white bird, with a long graceful neck, and black bill and face. It weighs 20-30 pounds and measures up to four feet in length. It is the largest North American waterfowl, and in flight, its impressive wingspan extends eight feet. Immature birds, called cygnets, are a sooty grey color until their first spring.
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| The adult swan is pure white, the cygnet a sooty grey |
Because their diet is primarily aquatic vegetation - a mature adult can eat 20 pounds in a day (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) - trumpeter swans need access year-round to open water where that vegetation grows. In shallow water they tip up to reach submerged vegetation, shaking water droplets off their face and neck as they raise their head.
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| Swans tip up to feed on submerged vegetation |
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| Raising its head after feeding, the swan shakes water droplets from its head |
Dabbling ducks such as mallards and ducks that dive, such as the common goldeneye, which have similar feeding habits to the trumpeter swans, may be found along with the swans where feeding conditions encourage it.
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| This male common goldeneye was feeding with the swans |
In addition to development and habitat destruction over the years, the Trumpeter Swan was hunted to the brink of extinction by the early 1900s, favored for its gorgeous white plumes. The species has recovered to about 20,000 in North America (NPS), of which about 500 live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but less then ten individuals live permanently in the park itself (NPS) - down from 27 reported for the year 2000. Another 4,000 Trumpeter Swans from Canada also winter in the same area. (USFWS) Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in the nearby Centennial Mountains, provided key breeding habitat for the recovery of the swans.
A few days after photographing the birds pictured above, on an early January winter snow coach trip into Yellowstone Park, we observed group of five swans on the Firehole River in Yellowstone, enveloped in the fog and mist of early morning.
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| Trumpeter Swans in winter on Firehole River in Yellowstone |
