Last Thursday I took a drive to the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary in Augusta north of Kalamazoo. I had never been there before and had wanted to visit it for sometime. At the welcome center a lady told me that there was a pair of trumpeter swans on the lake that had hatched 5 babies this summer. They were easy to spot. The babies are as big as the parents but not white yet. Their were other trumpeter swans there as well but this was the only family.
They were VERY entertaining to watch. The Momma and Daddy swan were very protective of their babies and didn't allow any of the other trumpeter swans to get near them.
They would do this very intimidating thing where they would aggressively chase the other swans. They would raise up and run on the water slapping the water with their webbed feet. You would be surprised how loud it was. And they would be honking away the whole time.
It was actually comical to watch.
The welcome center sells buckets of corn for the public to feed the birds so they were not really afraid of people. I was able to get some neat photos.
It was a very enjoyable visit and I'm sure I'll go again sometime. In addition to the swans there were many geese, ducks, and heron on the lake. There was also a section of caged birds of prey (owls and hawks) that was interesting to look at. More photos to follow of my visit in my next post.
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