April252007

Nature Photos of the Week

April 25, 2007

Trumpeter Swans in Conneticut!

Trumpeter Swans made a enjoyable late winter appearance in Connecticut this year,

all individuals tagged and part of a Canadian reintroduction program. There were at

least eight different individuals recorded, the rarest of our North American

swans and the largest.

In the 1800s and early 1900s, the Trumpeter Swan was hunted heavily, both as game and

a source of feathers. This species is unusually sensitive to lead poisoning while young.

These birds once bred in North America from northwestern Indiana west to Oregon in

the U.S., and in Canada from James Bay to the Yukon, but their comparatively small

numbers in the southern part of their range were reduced to near zero by the

mid-twentieth century. Many thousands survived in their core range in Canada

and Alaska, where populations have since rebounded. Efforts to reintroduce this bird

into other parts of its original range, and to introduce it elsewhere, have had only modest

success, as suitable habitats have dwindled and the released birds do not consistently

undertake migrations.

(The swan we see most often in Connecticut is the Mute Swan, introduced from

Europe in the late 1800's.)