Tundra swans have found their way to open water on Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park.

MUDDY CREEK TWP — From the Route 422 Bridge overlooking Moraine State Park, a photographer noticed a rustle in supposed snow around Lake Arthur.

“I thought they were snow banks on the shore until I looked through my camera,” said Matthew Mann, a member of Friends of Moraine State Park.

He saw instead tundra swans that have stopped on their migration back to Canada and Alaska. Members from the Friends of Moraine State Park have been photographing the birds this week.

“They definitely surprised me. I was walking down the North Country Trail from the breast of the Lake Arthur dam, and I didn't realize they were so close to the shore,” Mann said. “It startled me, and they all huddled on a frozen section of the lake. I'd estimate there were 75 to 100 swan near me.”

Mann said the tundra swan is an annual visitor for the park, but usually not for very long, as Lake Arthur serves as little more than a pit stop on their grander migration.

Read more in Sunday's Butler Eagle.

Tundra swans are named after the arctic tundra of Alaska and Canada, where they nest in the summer. The birds are making a brief stop at Lake Arthur this week.