Klamath Culture

Swans are a hardy animal, enduring the harshest of elements, with lingering winter weather here. Once, while driving through the Straits Drain Units of the Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge, through blinding sideways snow, hundreds of moguls in flat field were Tundra Swans with heads tucked completely covered with snow during a blizzard. Come March, Tundra Swans will leave, eventually nesting in the Arctic Circle at the northern part of North America. Trumpeter Swans leave for interior Alaska, or northern states with large rivers and lakes. A few have summered, and nested, at Summer Lake Wildlife Area over in Lake County, Oregon.

Winter might be thought of as the black and white season with longer nights, and cold fluffy stuff covering the leaves and bare ground. But it really is a colorful time if you find those ducks.