Today we saw seven swans swimming in the west end of our lake where it empties into the river. A friend told me about them so we drove over to see them.
Six of them are trumpeter swans. These swans are the largest in the world. Their black bill stretches up to the eyes, and often, as in the picture below, you see the orange strip in their beak.
They weren’t necessarily accommodating me for their pictures, mostly keeping their backs to me. They were busy feeding, so they were mostly upended looking for food. They were stirring up the vegetation for their food.
The seventh swan is a tundra swan. It was the furthest away and I wasn’t able to get a good, clear photo of it.
The tundra swan is smaller than the trumpeter swan. You can also identify it by the yellow under the eye. I’ve cropped and blown up the head so that you can see the marking.
