{"id":168812,"date":"2025-06-25T06:09:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T12:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=168812"},"modified":"2025-06-25T09:59:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T15:59:38","slug":"trumpeter-swans-with-young-cygnets-at-montanas-red-rock-lakes-nwr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/25\/trumpeter-swans-with-young-cygnets-at-montanas-red-rock-lakes-nwr\/","title":{"rendered":"Trumpeter Swans With Young Cygnets At Montana’s Red Rock Lakes NWR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the years I’ve probably photographed Trumpeter Swans in or near Montana’s Centennial Valley a couple of dozen times. But usually they haven’t had cygnets with them (especially young ones), they’ve often been in poor light and they’ve typically been far away. Trumpeter Swans are shy and territorial, particularly during the breeding season.<\/p>\n

But all that changed last week during another camping trip to the valley and Red Rock Lakes NWR.<\/p>\n

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This pair of swans and their three young cygnets didn’t even give me a chance to get my trailer unhooked from my pickup before they came in very close to investigate me. And over a period of three days they did so repeatedly. They were often so close I could only get one adult and a cygnet or two in the frame. This is one of my few photos of the whole fam damily.<\/p>\n

Here the little dab of shoreline greenery in the foreground at lower right is an indication of how close the swans were to the shore. And to me.<\/p>\n

In this photo the slightly larger male is the adult on the right. Even when the male wasn’t near his mate he was easy to identify because on this particular day, all day, he had…<\/p>\n

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an errant feather poking up on his back.<\/p>\n

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The plumage of adult Trumpeter Swans is entirely white, although their head and neck are often stained rufous by iron-rich waters and muds in which they forage. Here the adult female appears to be trying to keep an eye on her youngsters while she’s feeding.<\/p>\n

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I’m not sure what the adult male was doing here. He wasn’t calling or making any other sounds. As close as I was, I’d have heard it. Maybe he was yawning.<\/p>\n

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But I do know why his bill was open in this tightly cropped shot. He had mud in his bill from feeding and he was…<\/p>\n

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spitting it out. In this next shot in the burst we see the mud daub falling.<\/p>\n

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I took this shot in the early evening while sitting in camp and enjoying a drink before dinner. There were a couple of times when I thought one of the adults might swim a few more feet to the shore, climb the shallow bank and join me for a toddy. This was one of those times.<\/p>\n

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There was at least one other pair of Trumpeter Swans with young cygnets on the very large lake. They had four cygnets but they were always far away. This is as close as they got.<\/p>\n

My time(s) with these swans won’t soon be forgotten. Trumpeter Swans, with cygnets (young ones at that), up close and in reasonably good light, in the primary place (this refuge) that was used to save Trumpeter Swans from extinction.<\/p>\n

For this bird photographer it doesn’t get much better than that.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n