Trumpeter Swans

 Trumpeter swans

Yesterday my husband and I visited one of our favourite birding haunts, a small wildlife preserve. Not many birds there right now as the water is higher than usual for this time of year.  But after a while, a pair of swans came fairly close, swimming amongst the blooming water lilies.

One wears a tag

Trumpeter swans are making a huge come back in Ontario.  Trumpeters are indigenous to Ontario but in 1886, the last Ontario trumpeter was shot by a hunter.

Nearly a century later, an amateur biologist introduced swans back into the province. It all started with swan eggs obtained  through the Canadian Wildlife Service and the western Canadian Province of Alberta's department of resources. Another kind of swan - mute swans - hatched them. Although the female mute swans didn't care that the trumpeter cygnets were silver-coloured rather than brown like mute swan cygnets, the males did care.  So the volunteer tinted the baby feathers...and the trick worked!

Now there are wild trumpeters even in this tiny wildlife preserve.

Water lilies

More photos from Our World can be seen by clicking HERE.


I am connecting to Stewart M's Wild Bird Wednesday HERE