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FeaturesDecember 7, 2014

I remember being at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge one winter, as a boy, and seeing a pair of trumpeter swans. Several years since that time on winter trips to Mingo NWR, I would watch for trumpeters, but seldom saw one. Within the past five years it has become common to see a small flock of these big white birds in the Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois area...

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I remember being at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge one winter, as a boy, and seeing a pair of trumpeter swans. Several years since that time on winter trips to Mingo NWR, I would watch for trumpeters, but seldom saw one. Within the past five years it has become common to see a small flock of these big white birds in the Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois area.

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The two shown here were swimming on a small shallow lake with five others on Nov. 27 this year. The trumpeter swan is North America's largest waterfowl, and may live to be more than 20 years old. Its main food staple is aquatic vegetation. Trumpeter swans breed in a few of the northern U.S. states, parts of western Canada and Alaska.

The strange-looking mound behind the swans in the photo is a construction of American lotus leaves and mud built by muskrats. Stems of the American lotus with the large leaves cut off by the muskrats are visible sticking out of the water.

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