Spring is here, or is it?

Most years, but not every year, for the short period of 7 to 10 days the swans are stopping by here in Southern BC during their spring migration

Returning from their wintering habitat and on their way to their breeding grounds farther north.

For us a sign that spring can't be that far away anymore....even if the first images I was able to take of them this year were photographed in a howling snow storm.

Most of these swans are Tundra Swans. Tundra swans are the most abundant swans in North America. They breed on the coastal plains of Alaska and Northern Canada  but spend the winter as far south as California's Central Valley.

There are two subspecies of the Tundra swan, the so called whistling swan with a smaller yellow patch at the proximal part of it's beak and the Bewick swan (named after an English illustrator who first captured this swan on paper) with a much bigger yellow plate.

 Illustration by Robert Bewick, the son of Thomas Bewick after which the swan is named.

I believe the Tundra swans that stop by here to be whistling swans, as they only have a small yellow patch. The movie below makes it easy to understand how they got their name.

 While observing the swans I noticed, that lots of ground feeding swans were accompanied by a few ducks and as soon as the swan would come up, the ducks went down. I guess they profit off what the swan had stirred up.

The Tundra swans leave their wintering site usually around Mid March to arrive at their breeding habitat by Mid May,

 To my surprise and delight, for the first time this year, I also saw Trumpeter swans. I first noticed that there were a few swans that seemed to be way bigger than the others. Zooming in on them I saw that they don't have the yellow patch. This may or may not be an indication as there are Tundra swans that don't have them but then I heard I heard a sound as if someone were blowing into an old trumpet....

Trumpeter swans are the heaviest birds that are native to North America, They weigh between 15 - 30 lbs and have a wingspan up to 3 m! Trumpeter swans almost faced extintion.. In 1930 there were only 70 swans left in the wild, around the Hot springs of Yellowstone National Park.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the trumpeter swan was hunted heavily, for game or meat and for their quills and feathers. The Hudson's Bay Company alone captured thousands of swans annually with a total of 17,671 swans killed between 1853 and 1877...
Thanks to reintroduction and habitat restoration today the numbers are up to an estimated 46000 birds. The reintroduced Trumpeter swans though don't seem to migrate....which means that the swans that stop by here are from some wild gen pool!

This trumpeter swan seems to check out that funny furry bird....

Tundra swans coming out of the water for pruning and rest 

Bar brawl?

Mrs. and Mr Common Merganser are also enjoying an evening swim 

As elegant as swans look while on the water, their getting in and out of flight looks a bit prehistoric.

 Dinosaurs in the sky?

Nevertheless they are flying thousands of kilometers each year, and very soon they will be off, flying farther north....

...I will miss their whistling and trumpeting....until next spring!