Sometimes when I am outside in winter in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I hear trumpeted, but reedy, "woo-hoo", "woo-hoo-hoo" from high in the sky. I look skyward, searching, and here they come- long white lines and large V's of large, stately birds, tundra swans moving swiftly across the sky. Their magnificent flocks come closer and closer and soon one can see their elegance in body form and beautiful ease in flight. They are inspiring to experience, and I never tire of them.
All species of wild swans in North America are large, mostly white and majestic. Tundra swans and trumpeter swans are closely related, nearly look-alikes and native to North America. But they do have differences, including life styles. Mute swans, however, are aliens from Europe and in a different genus of swans. Field guides to birds will demonstrate the identifiable differences among these swan species.
Swans are species of waterfowl related to ducks and geese. All waterfowl are aquatic, and have webbed feet for efficient swimming, boat-like bodies for floating and spoon-like beaks for shoveling up aquatic vegetation, grasses and grain. But swans are the largest of their bird family, most elegant, and have the longest necks.
Tundra swans are, by far, the most numerous of wild swans in North America, about 100,000 strong. They nest on the ground on the treeless Arctic tundra north and west of Hudson Bay and about half their number winter on the backwaters of Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, the Outer Banks of North Carolina and other areas of the Middle Atlantic States, including here in Lancaster County. Wintering swans in this area feed on waste kernels of corn in harvested fields and the green blades of winter rye in fields.
But tundra swans are most magnificent early in spring when they gather by the thousands prior to embarking on the first part of their migration north to their breeding territories. From about mid-February to around the middle of March, depending on the weather, five to six thousand tundras, or more, congregate in Lancaster County alone, causing wonderful, beautiful natural spectacles with their sheer numbers and gracefulness. Twice daily they leave large bodies of water to feed in fields, then return to the water to rest, preen and socialize. But when the weather warms, off they go to the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes regions, literally overnight, where they will rest and feed, and wait for spring to catch up to their restless hormones. Little by little, they migrate across Canada as spring pushes north, arriving on the tundra about the middle of May, already paired and ready to lay eggs.
Trumpeter swans are called that because they do seem to trumpet as a communication. This magnificent species of swans mostly breeds in the northern American and Canadian west and mid-west and in Alaska. Many pairs of them build their bulky nests of grass and reeds on top of beaver dams and lodges, as well as along the shores of lakes and ponds in those regions. And most individuals of this species winter on the coast of British Columbia and ice-free waters inland in the American and Canadian west. But some individuals or pairs of trumpeters winter in scattered locations in eastern North America, including Pennsylvania, where, someday, they may nest, too.
Trumpeter swans were once almost extinct. But through protection and habitat restoration, their numbers have bounced back to over 35,000.
Trumpeters are the largest kind of waterfowl and the largest flying bird in North America, with males up to six feet long, including their necks, and weighing 26 pounds. They need large areas of running room into the wind, while flapping their wings, to become airborne.
Mute swans in North America are permanent residents along the Atlantic Coast from Rhode Island to North Carolina's Outer Banks. They also dwell in back waters of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. And they live in the Great Lakes Area, particularly in upper Illinois and northern Michigan. And they live on many farm ponds in the northeastern United States, including in Lancaster County.
But mute swans are aggressive toward other living creatures, including people. The presence of those beautiful, graceful swans is not welcome by wild game officials and others who favor native ducks, geese and swans that might be driven off their breeding territories by mute swans. But other people have pairs of mute swans
on farm ponds and along farmland creeks where those swans annually rear four to six cygnets. Some of the young swans become feral, joining other wild mutes and help to increase the population of this species in North America.
All swans are elegant, graceful birds. They add much beauty and intrigue to North American wetlands, lakes and ponds through the year.
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