the arrow points south

These swans, either trumpeters or tundras, flew over yesterday, riding each others' slipstream to warmer places.

They've spent their summer on tundra, probably in western Alaska, maybe near the broad, flat, wet mouth of the Kobuk River, floating regally in ponds. These birds are headed to Colorado, or Nevada, or California, or somewhere else in the west where water flows all winter. They are the last migrant birds to leave us up here, and a sign that the quiet season is here again.