Trumpeter Swans

Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator)

Order: Anseriformes       Family: Anatidae

 

From the mid-1800s until the 1960s there were no breeding pairs of Trumpeter Swans in the state of Minnesota. In 1966, the Hennepin County Park Reserve District started the first efforts to bring the Trumpeter Swan back to Minnesota. At first these efforts were not successful, but in 1969 a few of the birds that they brought in started to breed outside of Hennepin County. In the 1980s efforts were stepped up with partnerships with state and federal agencies, tribes, Canadian provinces, Universities and others. Today there is a breeding population of over 2000 birds in Minnesota.

Most of the swans do not migrate out of the state. They move only as far as they have to to find open water. I found these birds where the Pelican River flows out of Prairie Lake near Pelican Rapids.