One of the most majestic and beautiful birds in North America is, without question, the trumpeter swan. If you have ever seen one out in the wild, you know what I am talking about. With a wingspan of nearly eight feet, these large birds certainly define the terms of grace and beauty while on the wing.
Today, I was fortunate to come across 24 rare trumpeter swans in a rural farming community in the far northern county of Box Elder, Utah, just a few miles north of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in the small town of Corinne.
I say “rare” because, well, trumpeter swans aren’t typically seen in Utah very often. It’s quite unusual for this species of a swan to come through our state in such noticeable numbers that they have been doing the past couple of years.
Yes, I know trumpeter swans do occasionally migrate through Utah. But it is quite uncommon, maybe even rare, for them to migrate through in the numbers they have recently been doing.
And it is very rare to come across not one but two different flocks of them feeding in separate cornfields, less than one mile apart from each other at the same time as I did today.
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Personally, I have only seen a few other known trumpeter swans in Utah over the past several years. Last spring, I spotted a wounded adult trumpeter on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, and a couple years ago, a solitary juvenile was spotted in a cornfield with some Canada geese, very close to the fields I spotted the swans in today, in fact.
It seems to me, just by my own observations, that is, there are more trumpeters migrating to and through Utah than in past years. Maybe I am wrong, but the recent closure to Utah’s swan hunt again this year also suggests the same.
In fact, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has allowed for 20 trumpeter swans to be harvested in Utah for each of the past 2 hunting seasons before the overall swan hunt is shut down for the year.
Both years since that number was raised from 10 to 20 in 2019, the swan hunt was shut down early from the quota being reached prior to the end of the season. This year, in fact, the trumpeter swan quota was reached 16 days before the end of the swan hunt was scheduled to end, thus ending the hunt on November 27, 2020.
That, in and of itself, is a testament that more trumpeter swans are migrating through Utah. It is not known at this point if the influx of trumpeters is due to the overall population increasing or just a shift in migration routes but, all in all, Utah is seeing more of these iconic birds come through the state.
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About the trumpeter swan
Trumpeter swans are the largest birds of the waterfowl species. They mostly breed in parts of the far reaches of Canada and Alaska, with a few small pockets scattered here in the Intermountain West.
Possibly the most well-known population resides in Yellowstone National Park, although their numbers are quite small, with only 27 known resident swans in the park in 2019.
The most recent report I have found online estimates the overall trumpeter swan population around 63,000 birds (estimate from 2015 with population estimates done every 5 years), with most of those breeding up in Alaska and Canada and wintering on the Pacific Coast.
The tri-state region around Yellowstone, including parts of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, make up a small but stable portion of the trumpeter population with an estimated 500 birds.
One of the reasons the trumpeter swan is so highly monitored is back in 1932 fewer than 70 of these beautiful birds existed worldwide, mostly at a location near Yellowstone National Park.
Since then, conservation efforts, including reintroducing trumpeters in some areas and protecting other areas, such as establishing the Red Rocks National Wildlife Refuge in 1935, has helped the trumpeter swan population recover from what seemed like an imminent extinction.
Swan hunt
Utah is a major migration spot for the tundra swan, a smaller species that breeds on the far northern coastline of Canada and Alaska. The tundra swan population is stable to where 9 states allow a hunting season on them, including here in Utah where 2,750 swan permits were available this season.
Hunters are required to take all harvested swans to either the Utah DWR office or the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge office within 72 hours to have the bird properly identified and tallied against the trumpeter swan quota when a trumpeter is indeed harvested.
Trumpeter swan vs. tundra swan
Discerning the difference between the tundra and trumpeter swan isn’t always easy but there are a couple of key factors that help distinguish the two species apart from one another. Simply put, in adult swans the easiest way to identify them is by their head and beak.
Tundra swans typically have a yellow eye patch where the bill and eye connect. On trumpeters, there is no eye patch but what I call “red lips” is shown. Trumpeter beaks will oftentimes show a bit of red around the beak, looking a lot like red lipstick, to put it in layman’s terms.
Juveniles are a bit harder to discern with head and beak shape playing a key role in identifying them. And for further information on how to identify which swan is which, I will direct you to the Trumpeter Swan Society website with a more thorough discourse on the matter.
I actually sent them a couple pictures today to verify what I was seeing were indeed trumpeter swans and their response confirmed my suspicion.
Conclusion
For us birders, nothing beats seeing the unusual and unexpected, and I was treated to both today with two flocks of trumpeter swans in close proximity to each other.
The interesting thing is, if you look closely at this photo, you can easily see a tundra swan in the background. See the distinctive yellow eye patch?
Overall, I counted 25 swans today but one was most definitely a tundra swan and I believe all the rest were, in fact, trumpeters.
So if you are like me, an avid bird watcher, get outside and go look for some birds. I did today, and I most likely will again tomorrow, admittedly to try and locate these trumpeter swans again if I can.
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Trumpeter swan images
Below are some trumpeter swan images I photographed from both today and on trips in recent years to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge auto tour route and surrounding areas.
