Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday season! Winter is great time to view trumpeter swans withing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. In the warmer months, they’re spread out and much of their breeding habitat is closed so we don’t disturb nests and to protect the young. But in the winter, when a lot of water ways are frozen, they congregate in large numbers where there is open water. Here a mallard hen takes flight just as I begin photographing this beautiful swan.