The Fading Call of the Tundra Swan

(To hear a radio version of this story, click here.) 

On an ice-crusted soybean field on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, under a blue sky, hundreds of huge white birds are singing in a strange chorus.

They’re tundra swans, the largest birds native to the Chesapeake region, with five-foot wing spans, snowy  feathers and black beaks. They nest and raise their young in the frozen wastelands of Alaska and northern Canada. Then, every winter, they fly as much as 4,000 miles south – spending almost three months in the air. Their epic journey to Maryland and Virginia is one of the most beautiful things you can see and hear in the Chesapeake region's winters. But the swans are coming here less and less often, because water pollution and disease are destroying their food supply.

“They’re incredible birds,” said Larry Hindman, waterfowl manager for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.  “For some people, to see and listen to these birds, it’s a once in a lifetime experience.”

Hindman’s job is to watch the arrival of tundra swans every winter – and estimate their populations. Over 35 years of spying on the flocks, mostly from airplanes, he's documented a decline in the number of tundra swans wintering here. Back in the 1970’s, 30,000 tundra swans a year wintered in Maryland.  Today it’s more like 18,000.

The dropoff is happening because the underwater grasses and soft clams that tundra swans normally eat in the Bay are being killed by runoff pollution and disease.  So the tundra swans are forced to eat left-over soybeans and grains in farm fields like this. And more are skipping the Chesapeake region altogether and flying farther south to North Carolina.

“The real threat to habitat is too many people and urbanization, and what it does to the quality of the water,” Hindman said, looking out over scores of the swans in the field south of Cambridge. “Because you’ve got to have good water quality to produce submerged aquatic vegetation, and of course that is one of the problems with the bay grasses in the Chesapeake Bay. We have too many pollutants and high levels of nutrients.”

Tundra swans used to be called whistling swans.  But they don’t really whistle – just as their better-known cousins, mute swans, aren’t really mute. Mute swans, the fairy-tale-looking birds with graceful curved necks and yellow beaks, are from Europe. They’re considered an invasive species here in Maryland.  They grunt and hiss and occasionally attack other birds.

The more slender and straight-necked tundra swans are the old aristocracy here in the Chesapeake region, and they act too refined to grunt, spit or brawl.  They entertain each other by forming clarinet ensembles… a chorus of reedy, piping voices – an orchestra of winter.

All at once, they take off.  Their wing strokes are knife-like and powerful, as they soar up and over the row of trees edging the field. Their white feathers flash in dazzling contrast to the brown woods, iron fields and dead grasses.

“They are beautiful,” Hindman said.  “We shouldn’t take them for granted.”

Another thing we shouldn’t take for granted is the water quality that is key to the survival of tundra swans.  Huge development projects – malls and subdivisions -- take a toll by causing runoff pollution.  The migration of this suburban sprawl can also be seen here in this farm field.

Near the place where the swans took off, some of the dirt has been bulldozed and a plastic fence erected. A developer is preparing to build 675 homes here.  That’s enough to pave over 300 acres of fields – and create polluted runoff into a nearby river, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

The migration of the tundra swans is one of the most distinctive phenomena to grace the winters of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. But like this open field, the songs of these arctic angels may soon be just a memory.

Comments

[John Page Williams]

Good story, Tom. Larry Hindman is a dedicated waterfowl pro who loves these birds and speaks with the authority of long experience. The falling numbers ARE a worry, and indicative of the long-term slide in the Chesapeake's carrying capacity for some of our favorite species.

That said, though, here's a swan story that offers hope that improved water quality can help a river recover. When I first moved to Annapolis in 1973, the Severn River hosted nearly a thousand tundra swans each winter. There was lots of underwater grass in the river to feed them from late November till late February. Watching them on the river and listening to their "songs" made winter a wonderful time.

In the 1980's, the Severn endured a lot of construction, including both houses and roads. Cloudy water from sediment and algae blooms from nitrogen pollution killed the grasses. At first, the swans returned but then, with no food, they had to leave. By the late '80s, they skipped the Severn altogether.

In 1994, the underwater grasses began coming back. It's difficult to prove cause and effect, but shoreline protection from the Critical Area Act was certainly a positive factor. Since then, the grass beds have grown thick and diverse, with six species now in the river's mid-section, mostly between the Route 50 bridge and Cedar Point, at the western end of Round Bay.

And yes, the tundra swans have come back. At first there were only a dozen or so, but gradually they have increased until there are about 170 of them here now. Watching them in winter is almost as much fun as fishing for the Severn's chain pickerel, which have also come back from a low spot in the '80s (they too are grass-dependent). When my red setter, Hooligan, and I take a walk each evening, the swans serenade us.

Yes, this is a small-scale comeback, but it's a good example of how resilient the Bay ecosystem can be when we give it a chance.

[R Hollingsworth]

February 25, 2009
11:40am EDT
I observed two flocks of Tundra Swans flying northwest, identified by sound and sight. Location: south side of Indianapolis, Indiana
Rdh

[R Hollingsworth]

March 14, 2009,
Summary of 2009, Tundra Swan observations:
Location: south side of Indianapolis, Indiana
All observations were made at about 12:00pm and all were flying northwest
February 24, 2009, one flock identified by sound
February 25, 2009, two flocks identified by sound and sight
March 9, 2009, one flock identified by sound and sight
March 10, 2009, one flock identified by sound and sight
I first identified Tundra Swans twenty years ago during their spring migration and ever since I watch and listen for them each spring. Some years I see them and other years I don’t see or hear them. They usually seem to travel when the wind is in their favor. I recall a few years in the early nineties when there were heavy concentrations of many flocks. For this area, it may be over for 2009, but I know they still have long way to go before they reach their destination.
Rdh

[R Hollingsworth]

March 18, 2009
Additional, Tundra Swan information:
Location: south side of Indianapolis, Indiana
Yesterday, I visited with a friend who lives in a rural area, 7 miles east of Greenwood, Indiana. When I mentioned Tundra Swans, he related to me that he had seen heavy concentrations, whenever he went out side every day and at all times of day. Some of the flocks were so high that he could barely see them. He is a reliable source and his sightings were made during approximately the same period of time as my sightings, February 24, 2009 - March 9, 2009.
Conclusion, 7 miles east of Greenwood, Indiana was a major 2009 flyway.
Rdh

[Nadia]

wow this was very informative and gave me the perfect info for my reporT!!! THANKS