Naturalist's Corner - Where Are the Swans?

November along the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife & Fish Refuge which stretches through MN, WI, IA and IL is a hotbed of waterfowl migration. Puddle and diving ducks, pelicans, trumpeter and tundra swans, Canada geese, eagles and other water fowl spend time on the river and its backwater sloughs on their way to their wintering grounds.

The trumpeter and tundra swans that come in to rest and refuel on their way are always a big draw. There are a number of overlooks that stretch along the refuge that give a great birds-eye view of the action of the swans. 

Last year, the swan migration was well underway by November 6 when I wrote this post exploring swans' migration behavior.

But this year, not so much. The bulk of the migrating swans seem to be late. Warmer weather certainly seems to be playing a part. We have had unseasonably warm temperatures throughout late October and early November this year. 

To find out what's up, we checked this recent post from the experts at  Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife & Fish Refuge. On November 15, they posted the following on their Facebook page:

Photo: An adult tundra swan flies with two juvenile swans courtesy of Joni Welda.

"We are not sure when the peak of the tundra swan migration will be this year, the on-going warm weather has made predicting that more challenging. The eastern population of tundra swans stop first in the boreal forests of Canada, then in the Prairie Pothole Regions of the Dakotas, before arriving here on the River. The timing of their arrival depends on cold weather north of us causing bodies of water to freeze in their prior stopover sites, encouraging the birds to move on. If northern stopover sites don't have cold weather, length-of-day cues may encourage swans to move on, or they may move on when they've eaten most of their food source in these locations. We'll have to see what we see!

Recent bird sightings can be found on our website here: https://www.fws.gov/story/2022-10/recent-bird-sightings "

So be of good cheer, the larger numbers of migrating tundra and trumpeter swans are still coming. Be sure to stop at some of the listed overlooks and roadsides in the coming weeks and revel in the glory of the late fall swan migrations!