These Trumpeter swans are hanging out on Kalamalka Lake

While Trumpeter swans are not uncommon winter birds in the Southern Interior, it is not so easy to have them swim close enough to shore to get good photos.

“I've been watching the Trumpeter swans on Kalamalka Lake for the past few weeks,” Nick Clements posted on the Lake Country One Community Facebook Page on Christmas Eve. “Today they came close enough for a few photos.”

Clements did not respond to a request for comments but it is known that the swans do overwinter near Kamloops and in the Okanagan.

A 2004 report published by the Trumpeter Swan Society studied birds banded in Alaska that migrated south.

"This route is generally northwest of Kamloops and is traveled by birds that winter in the vicinity of Prince George as well as coastal British Columbia,” the report states. “Some birds move south through this corridor and encounter suitable wintering conditions near Kamloops and the south Okanagan.”

The swans were once widespread across North America as far east as the Atlantic Ocean but many were wiped out by early European settlers hunting “for their own use and for the swan skin trade,” according to Hinterland Who’s Who.

The remaining groups are the Pacific Coast Population, the Rocky Mountain Population, and the Interior Population.

The 2004 study said it could not determine if the Southern Interior birds were from the Pacific Coast or Rocky Mountain populations.

The male swans are called cobs, weigh an average of 12 kg and have wing spans up to three metres. Females are called pens and average 10 kg. The young are called cygnets and have grey plumage.

More of Clement’s photos can be seen here.

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