April 8, 2021 – There were 18 beautiful Trumpeter swans, discovered by Iroquois County resident Rick Rosenboom, resting in a flooded field in southern Kankakee County in early March. Occasionally, one of the great birds among the resting flock would stretch and flap its impressively large wings, which for Trumpeters can span over 6 feet. The flocks’ stunning, bright-white feathers were illuminated by the afternoon light making these migrant travelers appear otherworldly against a drab late-winter landscape. The flooded spot, a low and almost hidden area in an agricultural field, gave the swans a safe place to sleep, preen, and forage for a short time before continuing their migration to a northern wetlands for the nesting season. The Trumpeter swan is the largest native waterfowl in North America. Female Trumpeters can weigh up to 25 pounds, and males up to 38 pounds. There is an obvious difference in size between the other native swan, the smaller Tundra, which we also see during the migrations, often in mixed flocks with Trumpeters. The Mute swan, which was introduced from Europe, has a large orange bill with a bump or ‘bill knob’ at the base of the bill. The Mute swan is a very large bird but it is still a little smaller than the native Trumpeter. Mute swans have been seen on the Kankakee river with cygnets in the springtime over the years, while Trumpeters east of the Mississippi nest on the wetlands in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and southern Canada, and Tundra swans nest up in the Arctic. The loss of habitat and over hunting of the Trumpeters had a devastating impact on the swans, by the 1930s there were only 69 known to be alive in the United States. Biologists began an effort in the late 30s to save and expand the small population to other safe wetlands. There was a small flock discovered in Alberta Canada, and after Alaska became a state there were over 2000 discovered there. Today, according to the The Trumpeter Swan Society, the Interior Population is at 27,055, which is 40 percent of North America’s Trumpeter swan population.
