From the Contact Station December 2024

Fall’s Abundance

About those Swans: As the water has risen in the refuge, the swans have appeared. Now that the swans are here, what do we have. Well, if you have been listening while out on the refuge, you can hear the double toot trumpeting of the Trumpeter Swans. It reminds me of a deeper version of my old Schwin bicycle horn. It is always a great way to identify them compared to the Tundra Swans. The Tundra Swan call Is higher pitched, softer, and seems chattier to me. Many visitors assume the swans are all Tundras, but the proportion of Trumpeters in the flocks was increasing the last couple of years so it will be interesting to see if that trend continues.

There are a couple characteristics to look for in helping you decide which swan you have. It is best to not rely on just one characteristic, because some

can be variable or absent leading you to the wrong conclusion. First of all, when seen together, the Trumpeters are noticeably larger, ranging 22 to 30 pounds. While the Tundra Swan can be 12 to 16 pounds. Although I never seen this cited as a character for separation, to me, using a general impression, the tundra swan has a shorter, thicker, stiffer neck while the Trumpeter is more, well, swan-like, soft, curved, delicate if you know what I mean. Both species can have curved or straight necks depending on what they are doing, but you can see what I am saying in these two photos. But I don’t stop there to declare my identification, I start looking at other things on the bird.

One character on the Tundra that is always good is the yellow patch below the eye. Trumpeters don’t have that yellow patch, but occasionally, a Tundra’s patch is very small or absent. Having the patch is

positive for Tundra; not having the patch is not absolutely positive for Trumpeter.

Looking at the bird’s head in profile, is the top line of the bill scooped down or convex, as you move down from top to tip, or is it straight? Tundra is scooped and Trumpeter is straight. Also, the eye looks more broadly attached to the bill on the Trumpeter; more isolated on the Tundra. These characteristics are not easy at distance. Sometimes, you just have to call it a swan species. But stick around a while and listen to what they have to say.

Mushrooms: Through mid-October, one of the most amusing sights to follow was the huge growth of mushrooms sprouting around the Contact Station. I don’t know how many times I looked up to see visitors bent over the giants with cameras in hand. The biggest measured at least a foot across. Not knowing a thing about mushrooms, except what I chose for my pasta dishes at the grocery store, I tried iNaturalist to get some information. Here is the array of mushrooms seen. (The garter snake was keeping me company in the leaf litter under the cottonwoods as I was mushrooming.) The first two photos are identified as an Amanita species. The Amanita genus has about 600 species, many of which are the most toxic in the world. Good thing we are prohibited from collecting any plants from the refuge. Fun fact: This mushroom genus is responsible for about 95% of fatalities from mushroom poisoning. Well, they were fun to observe and obviously grew a crowd. Personally, I have never seen so many that were so big around the Contact Station. Growth conditions must have been optimal this year. The white ball and the slimy one have no identification yet, but if I hear more, I will let you know. As with photos of birds, sometimes the angle of the photo just doesn’t tell you enough to say what the species is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food for our waterfowl: I am still thinking about the colors of fall before the rains began and the density and variation of vegetation we have seen on the Refuge this fall. I had mentioned in the last e-news that the Beggar’s Tick had grown so well after all the work on the ponds to the north of the auto tour where the Reed Canary Grass mats were ground up to let the natives return. We also had an abundance of growth in Rest Lake. The lake filled with American Bur-reed, Sparganium americanum. Though it looks like a grass, it is a perennial plant that grows in low marsh and shallow water. As Biologist Alex explained to me, as the water dries out from spring to summer, Bur-reed moves down into the lower wetland areas to take advantage of optimum moisture content for growth. The higher edges turn brown earlier as they dry producing the layers of color out to the center of the lake. Well, there is still some of that light green canary grass (boo) out there that adds a different color too. While researching the swans, Bur-reed was listed as one of the many plants swans consume, along with Beggar’s Tick, in their close to 100% vegetarian diet. Other waterfowl and marsh birds also eat seeds of this plant and muskrats eat the entire plant.  As Biologist Alex likes to remind me from time to time, having the wetlands dry out in the summer is often very good for replenishing the right plants and keeping our wetlands healthy. We get seed for next year’s growth and food for the wintering animals.

Quick bits: A Black-necked Stilt showed for the second winter in the pond across from the Kiwa Trail entrance. It is a little bit earlier than last year I believe, reported first on Nov 17^th. As we get more water and the ponds edges expand, we could see more shorebirds enjoying this habitat as they are blown farther inland by our recent storms.

-Susan Setterberg, Contact Station Volunteer