From the Contact Station April 2023

Say Goodbye and Hello

Migration has already started.  Have you seen the huge number of American Coots in the ponds, fields and roads recently?  They make me laugh when the flock decides to cross the road.  They seem to do it slowly one or two at a time, effectively making me wait until the whole flock can get across.  By now, most if not all the swans and Northern Pintail are gone.  Changes are happening.

Thinking about our leaving winter visitors: The swans were eye-catching all winter long.  They were everywhere on the River S. In the Fall, one of our most frequent questions always is “Are the swans here yet?” Everyone loves seeing the beautiful, graceful birds.  The Trumpeters arrive the last week of October and are usually easiest to see first on Carty Lake.  Tundra Swans often come in the week before the Trumpeters in small numbers.  This last Fall it was a struggle to get the water levels up across the River S and the hunt zone.  But with some help from Mother Nature in November, they became quite full.  And, the result I can only describe as an explosion of swans on all of our River S.

In December I heard an interesting lecture at Vancouver Audubon Society by swan biologist Martha Jordan who is Executive Director of the Northwest Swan Conservation Association (NSCA). She covered the story of swans in the Pacific Northwest, particularly the Trumpeter Swan population and the threats they face. The lecture and the early winter abundance on the refuge caught my attention.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) participates in a western Washington mid-winter swan survey along with bird clubs and NSCS every five years during the week of the MLK holiday.  They cover as much of western Washington as possible.  Some of the surveys are fly overs, including the western southern areas of Washington. A total of 22,870 swans were found in January 2022 though the number is likely higher given there are some areas uncovered. North of Seattle in the Skagit Valley, well known for its wintering swans, 13,055 swans were counted.  Almost 16,000 of the state’s swans were identified as Trumpeter, while 530 were identified as Tundra.  The remainder were not counted to species.

What does that have to do with RNWR and the River S?  It has generally been accepted that Tundra Swans have been the predominant species of swan on the refuge, unlike the rest of Western Washington.  However, this winter, the numbers seemed to turn around with the Trumpeters far exceeding Tundra in counts.  First, a quick look at their migration routes.  The Tundra breeds along the coastal delta areas of Alaska and across the high tundra’s northern edges. In Fall, they move south along interior routes through the Yukon and central Canadian Provinces, down into the great basin and eventually circle round into eastern Oregon and California with some landing in eastern Washington.  A small number of those also come to the Ridgefield area.  By contrast, the Trumpeters originate from forested regions of Alaska, Canada’s western Yukon and northern British Columbia. Some portion of the Trumpeters move south along the great Pacific Flyway into western Washington.  Other Trumpeters will follow the Rocky Mountain Flyway into the great basin similar to the Tundras.  It makes sense that big numbers of Trumpeters take a short route down the coast to winter in Washington.  Male Trumpeters can weigh as much as 28 pounds.  They are the heaviest native bird in North America.  Moving that weight on the wing takes a lot of energy.  According to NSCS, they go only as far as they need to.

What makes for a good wintering ground for the swans?  Well, first of all, to be able to fly around an area for feeding, they need a runway of about 100 yards for lift off.  Our lakes this year have been high and big, excellent for landing and takeoff.  They also need areas where they are safe from predators like our coyotes.  By the time our swans, traveling in family groups, come into the refuge, the cygnets have already grown enough to not be such an easy snack for some predators.  Roosting in flocks on our lakes offers good protection.

When they first arrive after their weight sucking migration, they need fats and carbohydrates to make up for weight lost.  As they move through winter and get ready to migrate back north around late March they need to fuel up on protein-based green growth.  To grow and survive they need good nutrition and water and grit, which helps them digest the food they eat.  Their natural diets are made up of aquatic vegetation and underwater roots and tubers. They often eat with their heads submerged underwater. However, with changes in the availability of their native habitats, many Washington wintering habitats are supplemented by eating grasses and leftover agricultural crops like corn, carrots and potatoes or winter cover crops.  Here in Ridgefield, with the loss of so many farm fields, our wetland lakes on the River S and Kiwa area are a very important food source.  The late spring atmospheric rivers last year brought an abundance of vegetation as we can all remember how hard it was to see into Rest Lake in particular.  Everything dried up to almost nothing until November rains started in earnest.  That must have provided lots of nutritious food for the swans feeding in all the lakes this winter.

I looked at our late December Christmas Bird Count (CBC) data for the last few years and found that our River S counts were sparse for swans, and the Tundra far outnumbered the Trumpeters when they were here, although it is an imperfect measure because many were listed as swan species.  As an example, in January 2022 on River S we had 9 Trumpeter and 448 Tundra with 202 unidentified.  For the whole refuge that year it was 535/1658/899, respectively.  But this winter’s CBC on December 19, 2022, was 834 Trumpeter, 506 Tundra, and 916 swan species a big shift in species and larger numbers overall from the normal.  We had big lakes for the Trumpeters to land on, we had an abundance of food from the huge growth of vegetation in 2022, and we had open water without ice allowing them to reach the aquatic vegetation.  Looking at the temperatures in the early part of the winter, the northern Washington and British Columbia wintering grounds were much colder this year with sustained temperatures below freezing in late November and December.  Although the swans will move to available fields, these very cold temperatures which would freeze open water, may have pushed some of the swans farther south to find an adequate food supply.  And the swans coming along that Pacific Flyway would have been the Trumpeters.

My analysis only comes from marveling at the frequent tooting from the Trumpeter Swans I saw out the back window of the contact station this winter.  Mentioning this to several long-time birders familiar with the area, they agreed this year was different when it came to swans.  The NSCA has noted that the Trumpeter Swan population is growing steadily thanks to extra efforts in saving habitat and working with farmers to allow field grazing while protecting crops during sensitive times of the year.  This is a happy story when we consider that the trumpeter numbers, once abundant and geographically widespread across northern America, were greatly reduced during the early fur

trade and settlement in the 1600 to 1800s.  The birds were prized for their skins and primary feathers.  Only 69 individuals were known to exist in the contiguous United States in 1935, but unrecorded flocks also inhabited parts of Alaska and Canada.  With habitat conservation, including protection from shooting, and range expansion programs, the national surveys of white swan, begun in 1968, show swan numbers increasing.  Ridgefield NWR is an important wintering spot for them. They will be gone very soon.   I will eagerly await their return this next winter wondering if this year’s Trumpeter and swan numbers overall will remain high.

What is coming next?   Some are predictable and others deliver a nice surprise.  A lot of birds on migration will stop on their way much farther north to refuel. Visitors flying through can change weekly.  Some birds that will nest here are beginning to sing to attract mates and define territories.  The Red-winged Blackbirds, though some over winter, have definitely increased at the contact station feeder through March.  The males are showing off their red epaulets.  They usually arrive first to start staking out their territories followed by the females, some of which were also showing up at the feeder station end of March.  You should be listening for the Yellow-headed Blackbirds now between numbers 2 and 3 on the auto tour.  They have that funny, unmusical and mechanical sound I find hard to call a song.

Snakes are out warming on the nicer days.  During the end of March they were frequently found in the bills of Great Blue Herons.  There are usually a few hanging out around the cement walk to the toilets.  I have had a few surprise me.  Or maybe I surprised them?  Regardless, we both moved back a bit.  Start listening for the American Bitterns.  They will be doing their gulping sound of ONK-a-donk.  Listening for them from the back of the blind works well.  We know we had an abundance of them during the winter. With high water in the lakes, they were frequently seen around the edges from #11 and

around to #13.  While you are looking for bitterns, look up for swallows.  The tree swallows were first spotted in late February. We should be seeing other swallow species soon.

Some Wood Ducks have already arrived, and the males are looking very good.  Cinnamon Teal should be coming back soon.  All the ducks will be in their brighter breeding plumages.  Herons will be spruced up showing off their mating plumage.  Watch for Savannah Sparrows perching on the refuge signs. A few may overwinter but they are mostly a fair-weather bird.  I saw my first Turkey Vulture of the year on March 22, flying along the ridge.  Osprey should show up soon if it hasn’t already by the time you read this.

This is an excellent time of year to download the free Merlin app if you haven’t already.  I find it is very helpful to sort through the cacophony of bird songs in the spring.  It helps me to learn bird song, which I usually must do each year.  Hearing is my least effective birding tool so I really appreciate the help from the Merlin app.

In case you haven’t heard, a pair of cranes is again scoping out the Kiwa area for a place to settle in and nest.  This would be the fourth year in a row.  The first two years we saw successful fledging.  Last year, we could not confirm that the colt, which had been seen, survived to fledge.  We are hoping for this year to be a success.  Unfortunately, some will be disappointed that the Kiwa Trail will remain closed until nesting and fledging is completed.  If we are fortunate to have another nesting year, the Kiwa will likely be closed until mid to late July.

Do take some time to enjoy the budding of spring and the return and emergence of wildlife. It goes by fast.

Fun fact:  A group of swans can be referred to by several different collective nouns. When in flight, they may be called a wedge or a flight. Otherwise, a group of swans may be called a bevy, a bank, or a herd.