Watery Wednesday: Tundra Swans

I have been hoping to get out and get some pictures of migrating waterfowl this spring so that I would have some new pics to post for Watery Wednesday.

Unfortunately it seems like the waterfowl migration this year, at least around my house, is a bust. Last year I was out getting pics of ruddy ducks, horned grebes and red-breasted merganser but this year I feel fortunate if I see something other then a mallard or Canadian goose.

I have been out looking since the ice melted and the water opened up but I still have not seen a lot of waterfowl.

It may be that last year we had such a good spring migration, not only with waterfowl but with warblers also. because many birds stopped in the area for a while because their was still a lot of snow north of us. This year everything has pretty much thawed so perhaps they just did not stop in this area this year.

So it is a good thing that I still have some tundra swan pics that I took last fall that I have not yet posted.

Tundra swans are the smaller of the two type that are found in North America. They nest up in the tundra areas of Alaska and Canada but in the fall many often gather on the Mississippi River in southern Minnesota, staging for their migration south.

These pictures were taken near Brownsville, MN on November 11th. The swan with a pink bill is an immature bird. He probably hatched during the summer and has not yet fully matured. The adult in these pics was teaching the immature swan an important lesson and that lesson came from the end of the adults beak.