It was a great year for Trumpeter Swans at the CVWMA this year. To begin with, we recorded two pairs with broods this year; one pair with five young in Leach Lake and one pair with six young in Six Mile Slough. Staff were completing regular surveys there and saw the family of eight on multiple occasions. The last sighting was in early November when we saw them fly off on their southward migration! The only other record of breeding Trumpeter Swans on the CVWMA was back in 2017.
Another interesting observation was a “banded” Trumpeter Swan that showed up in Six Mile Slough in the spring and in the fall of 2019. We reported this banded bird, number 7@7, and found out it was a three-year old male who had been banded last winter in Oregon. We had a chance to see this fellow several times on our fall surveys in Six Mile Slough and he seems pretty attached with another swan – must be his handsome green collar and leggings!
If you happen to see a banded bird out on your travels, you can submit your observations to the Bird Banding Laboratory at
https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/bblretrv/ or https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/bird-banding/how-to-report.html
to get information about where the bird was banded. Reporting banded birds helps various organizations understand where birds go at certain times of the year, which can then be used for conservation efforts for the species.
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