Swans

[foggy]

Took a cell phone pic of a pair of swans in front of my place here on Gull Lake. (cell camera is telephoto'd up.....and that is two miles across the lake). I can see about 40 swans out on the lake right now....and the sightings are higher each year. I don't think I saw any swans in my youth.....and only the past 10 years or so have I seen so many. Any idea on how big the swan population is now?

Some of the area lakes are frozen over and I'm starting to see a few fish houses on area lakes. A few of the big lakes are still open.

 

[Riggsgwp->]

I would agree that there seems to be a lot more swans now compared to many years ago. They seem to hang around pretty late in fall to for some reason. This group has been using my pond most of the fall.

 

[Riggsgwp->]

Apparently if you're a native you can hunt them.

Tribes begin two-month swan hunting season - with restrictions


By Dave Orrick dorrick@pioneerpress.com

Friday, Oct. 31, 2014 - 12:01 a.m.

A pair of tundra swans come in for a landing at Rieck's Lake, located north of Alma, Wis., in December 2001. (Pioneer Press: Joe Rossi)


On Saturday morning, hunters in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin will begin shooting swans.

Yes, swans -- trumpeter and tundra swans -- those large white waterfowl that are as much a symbol of grace and beauty as they are of conservation success from the brink of extinction.

The hunters will be members of seven Chippewa Indian tribes, and they'll be allowed to hunt in any huntable waters across swaths of east-central Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula known as the ceded territories of 1837 and 1842.

The two-month hunt, which has been approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, represents the first legal swan hunt in the Mississippi Flyway and the first hunt anywhere where trumpeter swans can be legally killed -- though the primary target will be similar-looking tundra swans.

While the hunt is prompting unease, if not criticism, among some swan lovers, its federal approval serves as testament to the trumpeter swans' comeback from nearly zero a few decades ago to perhaps 10,000 birds in Minnesota today.

 

[SD51555]

I wish wolf hunting was part of their heritage.

 

[tooln]

Make's you wonder if it will turn into a big controversy like spearing did years ago.