With a quick lunge, he made his move. Twenty pounds of muscle and feathers could not escape. As Dave Hoffman stood up, an upset trumpeter swan flapped and flailed in his arms. The disagreement did not last long. Even as Hoffman walked a few yards to his vehicle, the six-month old swan calmed down, though it's long neck stretched to the sky, looking for an escape route. Hoffman folded the big gray-white cygnet into a portable pet carrier and went back for more.

Five young swans met the same fate this day; siblings hatched and raised on the enclosed pond at the Grotto of the Redemption at West Bend. Their parents; about five pounds heavier and bearing the trademark snow white plumage are "residents" here. The female, one of the oldest in Iowa, has been there since 1992. Her mate has been on site for about five years. Neither can fly, so they call the half-acre pond home. Each year they raise a brood, helping fuel the trumpeter swan recovery across Iowa.

Trumpeters, with their regal bearing and French horn-like calls, dotted Iowa wetlands, until European settlement drove off most of them. Unrestricted market hunting nearly finished the job. Like many other species, trumpeters were extirpated from Iowa and most of the U.S. In the mid-20th century, their known population was just 69 in the "lower 48." In the past twenty years or so, their restoration has been supported by conservationists, landowners and wildlife agencies; a link underscoring the value of wetlands for wildlife habitat and water quality.

"They will be banded and moved over to Nora Springs for the winter," explains Hoffman, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources. "They will be released into the wild next spring here in north central Iowa." The young birds, which had their wings clipped once over the summer, got another trim before they left West Bend. As new flight feathers grow in, the swans will take to the skies. And that first flight area...not the crowded grotto pond...will be imprinted on them as their home territory.

Before they left, though, the young swans received some up close admiration from grade school kids. Some walked over from the adjacent parochial school. A busload of West Bend-Mallard students rolled up, too.

"It was really soft, and it felt weird," offered 11 year old Jacob Umsted. He and other classmates had a chance to pet the swan as Hoffman held on firmly and told them, about the largest North American waterfowl. "It was trying to bite me and stuff. It almost did," laughed Umsted, recalling the bird's eight-foot wingspan and repeating a couple other 'swan facts' from the outdoor classroom. "It was really soft," pointed out eight-year-old Emily Bormann. "It kind of felt like a whole bunch of piles of feathers."

In the meantime, the swans' new home...and about a dozen others across Iowa...host a variety of soon-to-be-wild trumpeters. Some are on public areas, with DNR staff feeding and monitoring them. Others rely on private cooperators, with supplies from the DNR and the Trumpeter Swan Restoration Fund. Each area has open water and is fenced to keep predators away from the flightless birds.

The private cooperators are the key to success of the swan restoration. "We have released about 570 (swans) into the wild, in hopes of building a wild, free flying population," explains Hoffman. "We appreciate the Grotto here and others across Iowa, for cooperating and raising these cygnets."

And the results are starting to show. "We had about 15 nests in the wild this past year," records Hoffman. "They are spread out from the Mississippi River over to Loess Hills State Forest. We also have some around Spirit Lake, so they're spread all around the state. There are also Iowa swans nesting in Minnesota, Wisconsin. We also have confirmed tracking (of migratory birds) in 15 states and two provinces in Canada. A swan that hatched here at the Grotto, for example, traveled all the way to Lubbock, Texas."

For every Grotto swan, viewed by thousands of visitors, there is another facing the elements in the wild, slowly expanding the range of these special waterfowl. The head start provided by supporters here and throughout the upper Midwest ensure those wide, webbed feet have good footing in that battle.

Restoration Fund Aids Big Birds

With a network of volunteers, the trumpeter swan has taken wing, literally, over the last decade in Iowa. The Iowa Wildlife Federation maintains a trust fund, utilized by the DNR to purchase birds, feed and supplies. All contributions go directly to the swans. Trumpeter Swan Fund, c/o Iowa Wildlife Federation, P.O. Box 3332, Des Moines, Iowa 50316.
 

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