The World Through Our Lens
The trumpeter swan is a species of swan found in North America. The heaviest living bird native to North America, it also is on average, the largest extant species of waterfowl.
For the second year in a row, the mated pair of Trumpeter Swans that have taken up residence at Milliken Park in Toronto gave birth to a new set of cygnets…7 in all this past spring! Within a couple of days, Ashton and Tango, as they are fondly known, lost one cygnet to unknown causes, but the other six are thriving. Read more
They’re back! It seems that trumpeter swans, H11, and her cygnet were just taking a short vacation away from their home pond. When Bob and I cycled to Milliken Park, in Toronto, Friday morning, October 17, the whole family was cruising the pond together. Read more
Earlier this past fall, visitors to Milliken Park in northeast Scarborough would have noticed that only two Trumpeter Swans were inhabiting the main pond where previously there had been a family of four. Tango, the female or pen, was diligently caring for her one remaining cygnet after the untimely death of her other baby in mid-September. Read more
It had been two weeks since Bob and I first spotted the two Trumpeter Swan cygnets at Milliken Pond, and they seemed to be thriving. We dropped by the park one day to check on their well-being and were thrilled to see them paddling along with nary a care in the world. Read more
How exciting to find that the pair of Trumpeter Swans at our local park in north Scarborough now have two recently-hatched offspring to care for. As Bob and I looked on, the cygnets kept very close to “mom” on the shore of the pond… Read more
After a morning well spent at Boundary Bay Regional Park in the Delta region south of Vancouver, Bob and I made our way towards another popular birdwatching location still situated on the Fraser River estuary, the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary. While progressing in that northwesterly direction, we had to pass through an extensive array of farm fields, and in one such field, Bob and I spotted a number of Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) scavenging for remnants of grain. Read more
When Bob and I visited La Salle Park in Burlington last winter, we had quite a significantly different experience from the last time we found ourselves there in April 2013. A good number of Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) were present just offshore from the snow-covered beach, but rather than dallying in the warm waters of Hamilton Harbour, they were trying to keep warm on the icy surface of the frozen bay. Read more
There is nothing like strutting your stuff, and that is just what several Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) were doing when we showed up on the beach at LaSalle Park in Burlington, Ontario, in the spring of 2013. Read more
Early one spring, on the shores of Lake Couchiching, Bob and I caught up with two members of the trumpeter swan family as they began their migration back to their breeding grounds in central Ontario.
Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) at one time were familiar sights in southern Ontario during periods of migration, but due to over hunting in the 18th and 19th centuries, for their feathers and their skins, as of 1886, they had vanished from the region. That year, a hunter at Long Point on Lake Erie shot the last known trumpeter swan that was migrating from the west.