With little more than a month to go until the 18th Annual Wings Over The Rockies festival in the Columbia Valley, avian visitors are making their presence known. During their northward spring journey to the Arctic, tundra swans (the specks on the ice in this shot) enjoyed an icy stopover in the Wilmer Wetlands on Tuesday, March 11th. The swans, not to be confused with the similar-looking trumpeter swan, are enjoying the remaining ice patches and the open water in the wetlands. Inset photo: a songbird, also captured in a shot from Wilmer on February 24th, can be seen as a sign of spring. Photo by Pat Morrow/www.patmorrow.com; inset photo by Kim Hutton

With little more than a month to go until the 18th Annual Wings Over The Rockies festival in the Columbia Valley, avian visitors are making their presence known. During their northward spring journey to the Arctic, tundra swans (the specks on the ice in this shot) enjoyed an icy stopover in the Wilmer Wetlands on Tuesday, March 11th. The swans, not to be confused with the similar-looking trumpeter swan, are enjoying the remaining ice patches and the open water in the wetlands. Inset photo: a songbird, also captured in a shot from Wilmer on February 24th, can be seen as a sign of spring.Photo by Pat Morrow/www.patmorrow.com; inset photo by Kim Hutton