This is Bird Note.

With deep, unhurried wing beats, a dozen majestic swans fly in a straight line.

Their immense white bodies glistening in the golden sunlight of a November morning.

As they fly closer, their long necks fully outstretched.

The swans syncopated honks reveal their identity.

These are trumpeter swans.

The flock lands in a plowed field to forage for remnant potatoes and other waste crops.

With an almost seven-foot wingspan, trumpeter swans are among the largest of all waterfowl.

At nearly 25 pounds, they are among the heaviest of all flying birds.

Now, a second formation of swans flies in to forage near the trumpeters,

but these swans announce themselves with a different voice.

Just a bit smaller than the trumpeters, their distinctive whoops tell us they are tundra swans, a different species.

Both species of swan fly south each fall from nesting sites in Canada and Alaska.

Trumpeter swans winter mostly in the Pacific Northwest, while tundra swans can be found along both coasts and at a variety of inland sites in the west.

You can see these spectacular birds on their wintering grounds any time between now and the

middle of March.

For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.