Windwolf
Crex Meadows ... Birds on the Meadows ... Trumpeter Swan
The Trumpeter Swan
Cygnus buccinator
The Trumpeter Swan reintroduction program on Crex Meadows has been a huge success! In the mid 1980s the first birds were raised on the refuge for release.
Since this time the numbers of Trumpeter Swans nesting on Crex Meadows has provided birders an opportunity to watch these birds from their return in the spring through the last days of fall, rather than an occasional sighting during spring and fall migrations.
This pair of Trumpeter Swans photo was taken in the spring 2005. The yellow neck band with black lettering is the type of tags used for Wisconsin Trumpeter Swan reintroduction birds. Minnesota uses the same neck band pattern with an additional yellow wing band. There is also a state which uses a neck band that is turquoise in color with orange lettering that I have seen occasionally in Crex Meadows, but I am unsure which state uses that banding color combination.
The Trumpeter Swans flying was taken the same day as the Trumpeter Swan pair above. This is a different pair in the flying picture. Note the size of the feet of the pair in flight.
The picture on the right is a footprint from a Trumpeter Swan as it crossed the road in Crex Meadows near Phantom Lake.
The footprint is nearly 8 inches tall and 6 inches wide.
The nearest waterfowl with this sized footprint is the Canadian Goose, which is almost half the size of this birds print.
Photo taken June 28, 2007
The picture on the left is a wider shot of the above footprint to show more context in the Trumpeter Swan tracks. There are three footprints in the picture.
The lowest footprint is the one in the picture above with the ruler taken away.
If you look closely, you can see the bird turned to the right as it crossed the road. This causes the print in the above picture to imprint deeper on the right side as the weight of the bird was shifted to that part of its foot.
Note how the toenail mark is deeper as the birds weight is shifted in the bottom and center tracks.
Photo taken June 28, 2007
The above picture shows a group of Trumpeter Swans resting on Main Dike Road in Crex Meadows.
The gray cygnet in the lower right side of the picture is actually two young birds. If you look close, you can see there is two bodies but their necks and heads are lined up making it difficult to see the two birds.
Above the two Cygnets there is a lone Egret behind the adult Swan.
On the top, the third Trumpeter Swan from the left is stretching his wing. Note the size of his/her foot against the background.
Picture taken October 4, 2007
The picture above is the first day in 2007 when cygnets were reported around Crex Meadows. The group above is a brood of 7 cygnets, a rather large hatch. Other Trumpeter Swan broods in Crex Meadows this year (2007) included a pair with 5 babies near Dike 5 and another pair who hatched out two cygnets. The earliest I have seen cygnets is May 31, after an unusually warm spring.
Trumpeter Swans are known to be very protective parents but a hatch of 7 is a large group for two parents to raise with all the natural threats to the young existing. This year had the added burden of drought which lowered water levels in Crex Meadows. This increases the risk of accidental lead poisoning for these birds. Lead shot pellet accumulations are known throught the mid-west and have killed large numbers of local groups of Trumpeter Swans.
The above picture was taken June 6, 2007
The photo to the left was taken June 14, 2007 and shows the growth in a weeks time for the young birds.
While only five cygnets are visible in this picture, all seven were here and doing well. A good begining for this brood.
And here is the same brood of seven on October 4, 2007. This family was located in the same area as the group picture of swans above. In total, there were at least 28 Trumpeter Swans in the pool along Main Dike Road this day.
These two sound files I have included were both noise reduced due to car noises and wind noises. The recording equipment I have is not the best for obtaining good audio of birds, but it is what I have.
Both recordings are of the above family of Trumpeter Swans and recorded October 4, 2007
Listen to the Trumpeter Swanrecording length of 42 seconds. Size of file 333kb.
Second file of Trumpeter Swanrecording length of 28 seconds. Size of file 452kb.
Trumpeter Swan Taxonomy
| Kingdom | Animalia | Animal, animals, animaux |
| Phylum | Chordata | chordates, cordado, cordés |
| Subphylum | Vertebrata | vertebrado, vertebrates, vertébrés |
| Class | Aves | Birds, oiseaux |
| Order | Anseriformes | |
| Family | Anatidae | canards, cygnes, Ducks, Geese, oies, Swans |
| SubfamilyAnserinae | ||
| Genus | Cygnus | Swans |
| Species | Cygnus buccinator | Trumpeter Swan |