Trumpeter Swan

Description:

An adult Trumpeter Swan

Habitat:

In and along an area of lake kept open by the Otter Tail River

Notes:

I met a family of Trumpeter Swans down here last winter and would bring them whole kernel corn after seeing flocks of them eating in farm fields where corn was grown the previous summer. The adult male (I believe) would approach me saying, "Ee-Oh, Ee-Oh!" in response to my greetings of "Hello! Hello!". Their young would bob their heads and squawk in excitement when their daddy spoke human. This area of the lake froze over until finally opening up about two months ago this winter. I hadn't seen my family for 11 months but when I noticed it had finally opened and there were Swans down there I called, "Hello! Hello!" from the bridge and one of the adults called back "Ee-Oh! Ee-Oh" and raced to meet me on the river bank. Thankfully I had corn in my trunk to bring down to them but they seemed to ignore the corn. Instead, they came out of the river and proceeded to lay down on the river's bank a car length away from where I sat down. We sat there enjoying one another's company for an hour or so and I met their one, surviving baby from this past summer. After a few weeks of me visiting them every three or four days, their baby would race out of the water to gobble up the corn I put out for them, cooing or purring the whole while it ate. Their young, now grown, from last winter also came up and lay down on the river bank near me. It amazes me who quickly they all remembered me and accepted my physical presence and that of my grandson..though slightly more skittish of him as he doesn't sit still very long and forgets to talk in whispers.