Trumpeter Swan - Westholme, BC
This is the largest swan to live and breed in North America and can be identified by the loud bugling sound the birds makes when flying. They are pure white with black bills and black lores. The rusty coloring in the head comes from the iron in the soil where they bury their heads looking for roots and tubers in the soft ground. Not far from this location where several swans were resting, a large group was in an ice free creek where they were bobbing for food on the river bottom. This particular group of swans winter on Vancouver Island just north of Victoria in Westholme.