PHOTO BY GARRY BRANDENBURG Trumpeter Swans, on the day of this image last week, numbered 17 as they rested at Sand Lake. These are North America’s biggest native waterfowl with six foot wingspans and body weights easily 25 pounds. They were conspicuously a stand-out among the giant Canada geese that were also plying the open water. A few days later, upon re-checking Sand Lake, I happened to be there when they took off as a group. They flew northwest and out of sight, perhaps to find a corn field to feed in. Because these waterfowl are so big and heavy, take off from water requires powerful wingbeats and a foot paddling run on the lake surface for about 100 yards before they have gained enough air speed and lift off. After that, they are a picture of elegance in the air.

TRUMPETER SWANS (Cygnus buccinator) are big, beautiful and in a class by themselves in terms of holding title to being North America’s heaviest flying bird. Iowa has participated for many past decades in a program to reintroduce these swans back to a landscape they once called home prior to settlement. Even with the Midwest’s loss of prairie pothole wetlands on a massive scale, these swans seemed destined to follow other species toward extinction. But they did hold out in pockets of habitat. Thanks to biologists working together in many states, a comeback for this species was successful.

The program basically started with captive wing-pinioned T. swan pairs placed at specific habitat sites. In the case of Marshall County, it was a fenced in area of the south silt pond at the Green Castle Recreation Area. The pair of swans could nest in comfort and raise their cygnets each year. The young swans were later captured during September, combined with other young of the year cygnets from other Iowa locations and relocated to places like Arkansas. As free flyers, these swans in a few years time would find mates and return to Iowa to nest. The program worked.

Life was tough for swans even before mankind settled Iowa. Yes, there were lots of wetlands with muskrat huts and beaver dam impoundments plus natural glacial lakes on Iowa’s landscape filled with water for much of the year. As people started to investigate the prairie lands between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, a trend started to fill an economic need at the time, early 1800’s, for market hunters and feather collectors. Knowing what we know now, it was a sad direction to take. However, at the time, it was just one way to make a living off the land. The market hunters may have had no idea how critical their pursuit was in the decline of swan species. Swan feathers were used to adorn fashionable ladies hats and swan skins were used as powder puffs. The bird’s long flight feathers were sought after to use as writing quill pens. But the biggest cause of swan decline was the removal of habitat by settlement activities. It was a one-two punch that was almost too much for this species.

Well, recovery did take place. In spite of the hurdles, T. Swans have proven to be resilient. Good for them. And a big thank you to lots of people, Ducks Unlimited members and bird watchers and all conservation minded folks that may have contributed hard earned dollars as donations to Iowa’s non-game wildlife programs.

T. Swans for pair bond when three to four years old. They stay loyal to each other even as they migrate in flocks each spring and fall. Pairs may find new partners if one of them dies. In the long run, they adapt to changes forced upon them. Come nesting time, the pair may seek out a muskrat hut or today a floating platform made by people. On top of this will be lots of aquatic vegetation including grasses and sedges. Once built, the nest bowl is shaped by the female into a large oval depression lined with a few feathers from her body. Into this nest are laid four to six eggs. Each egg is about 4 to five inches long and three inches wide. Incubation takes 32 to 37 days. An interesting behavior of T. Swans to help incubate the eggs is to place their large webbed feet on top of the eggs. Blood flow in the parent’s feet assist in keeping the eggs warm. Upon hatching, the cygnets leave the nest within 24 hours. Young T. Swans grow fast and in as little as 90 days, average being closer to 110 to 120 days, they can fly.

So the next time you see large white waterfowl on an Iowa cornfield, or area lake, you will know more about this largest of native waterfowl. May the light be right so your camera can capture images of this majestic bird. Good luck.

WELCOME 2020, a new year for us humans and it is a leap year with February having 29 days. For all the friends with birthdays on Feb. 29, it is a once every four years happening. The extra day in February is a planned adjustment to the calendars to allow for a slight inaccuracy of measurement of earth orbit time around the sun. Okay, so be it.

During January, people can look forward to a full blast of winter season weather with all its good and bad connotations. The choice is to adapt to what Mother Nature throws at us.

A few days ago on the fourth, I hope you had a chance during the night to look up at the sky. Did you see the peak of the Quadrantid Meteor Shower? On the fifth, astronomers tell us the Sun and Earth were at their closest distance of a tad more than 91 million miles. Back on earth, the 10th of this month is the expiration date for fishing and hunting licenses. Buy new ones anytime so you can enjoy another year outdoors catching fishes or taking a game animal for food additions for family meals. Pheasant season ends on Jan. 10, but quail and partridge season continues until Jan. 31. Most deer seasons end also on the 10th. Check the regulations for special zone later deer seasons in known CWD locations.

And this tidbit of January trivia may thrill you: Day length on the first was 9 hours 10 minutes. On the 31st, it will have increased to 9 hours 57 minutes. The Sun is slowly making its arc across the sky a bit higher each day.

FAVORITE PHOTOS: I’m sometime asked what my favorite photograph is that I’ve been able to use in these editions of Outdoors Today. That is a hard question to answer because it tends to be the subject I just finished capturing. However, out of thousands of images I make, my delete file is the largest. My keeper files are the is smallest. And even at that rate, I have many thousands of saved images on file.

But to answer the question, for 2019, I think some of my favorite photos would be three bull elk in the prairie at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge near Prairie City. Next would be a woodpecker, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. For deer, I’ll go with an image from Cody Brinks of his non-typical white-tailed deer that scored 234 6/8ths and won its division at the Deer Classic last March. I made several keeper images of a female fox and her pups in May. A scarlet tanager bird with its brilliant black and fire-engine red coloration rates high. A loon at Sand Lake with outstretched wings was a great opportunity captured by my long lens. My wife enters the list with an image of her with her trophy 25-inch walleye during a Canada fishing trip. And a male hummingbird with its throat feathers spread so as to catch maximum light and iridescence rates high on my list.

MY FAVORITE STORY I like best was from Feb. 24, 2019 titled Glacial History of North America. I used maps to illustrate the maximum extent of glacial ice over all of Canada and northern portions of the USA from Washington state to Maine. The purpose of this natural history story of the Earth was to remind us humans of the natural cycles of long lasting glacial dominance and much shorter interglacial warm periods that have repeatedly existed on the planet. In case some folks think mankind is in charge of long range climate fluctuations, nothing could be further from the truth than that. Geology tells lots of stories of glaciers advancing and retreating. These are the long range effects of huge forces of cosmic origins. There is nothing we can do except adapt.

Quote: “Years end is neither an end or a beginning, but a going on, with all the wisdom that experiences can instill in us.”

— Hal Borland, writer,

journalist, naturalist.

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Garry Brandenburg is a graduate of Iowa State University with BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology. He is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. Contact him at PO Box 96, Albion, IA 50005.