Trumpeter Swans

When I was in early elementary school, our teacher read to our class EB White's book The Trumpet of the Swan. It was a story that always stuck with me, even though I had never seen a trumpeter swan. On Saturday, that changed. Operating on a hot tip from a good source, Cooper and I set off to find the swans. They had been seen on a river between two lakes in west-central Minnesota. The book (and elementary school) was about 30-32 years ago. At that time, Trumpeter Swans were on the verge of extinction and very rare. Today, they have made a comeback; there are about 800 birds in Minnesota. We succeeded in finding the birds. We found one flock exactly where my tip said they would be and then we stumbled on another flock also. In total, we saw about 50-60 birds. Most importantly, those numbers included about 10-14 young birds; the Minnesota flocks are considered at a sustainable level. I took pictures and have posted on the photoblog, but the highlight of the day was when I put the camera away and carried my 3 year-old son Cooper through the snow so he could see and hear them. The smile on his face made all the slush and ice we drove through to get there worth it. The sound of their “trumpeting” call amazed both of us. They were huge but beautiful in flight and their landing and takeoffs were well worth seeing.

I found out that they made an animated special of the book in 2000. I plan on picking up both the DVD and the book for Cooper so I can share the story with him as we shared the day with the wild swans together.