By Staff
First, I have to tell you about a unique event I witnessed. I was gawking out the patio doors at the creek and noticed a cooper's hawk flying downstream at a good clip. Then I saw a kingfisher coming upstream at an equal speed on a head-on course with the hawk. The hawk lunged at the kingfisher which, without missing a wing beat, plunged deep into the creek. I can only imagine what the hawk thought about this disappearing act as he continued on down stream. Moments later the kingfisher emerged and went on his way upstream.
Much of what we hear from the conservation front portrays gloom and doom, like habitat loss and still more additions to the endangered species list. We tend to forget the truly remarkable conservation successes. In just my lifetime, I've witnessed the bison brought back from near oblivion and sandhill cranes emerge from just a picture in a book to fill the skies nearly all across the country. Whooping cranes, though they have a long way to go, aren't extinct as was once considered imminent. I've seen bald eagles become almost commonplace and peregrine falcons return from hopelessness.
Another remarkable success story is the recovery of our native swans. There are two species of swans native to North America, the trumpeter and the tundra, also called the whistling swan. The trumpeter swan is the largest swan in the world, weighing in at 25 to 35 pounds with wings spanning nearly eight-feet. It was once found throughout the U.S. wherever there were suitable nesting marshes. The tundra swan winters along both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the U.S. and nests in the high Arctic of Alaska and Canada. Their migration routes are through the interior, so they pass through much of the northern U.S., including Michigan, in the spring and fall.
The tundra swan is just slightly smaller than the trumpeter. Both are all white and can best be distinguished by their bills. The trumpeter's bill is all black while the tundra swan usually has a yellow area between the eye and the bill. Another swan that is becoming quite common is the mute swan. This is a Eurasian import brought over by immigrants in the 1800s. Escapees readily adapt to life in the wild and they can now be found most anywhere. They are easily distinguished from our natives by their orange bill, often with a large knot at the base.
Early explorers and settlers reported vast numbers of swans throughout most of the country but soon an ill wind blew for these majestic birds. During the 1800s much of their critical marshland habitat was drained and filled while market hunters slaughtered them unmercifully for their quills and down. By the early 1900s the trumpeter swans that once graced nearly every marsh and pond was down to a mere 66 birds holed up in remote areas of the Rocky Mountains and Alaska. The tundra swan wasn't faring much better.
In the 1980s Michigan joined a nationwide effort in an attempt to recover the trumpeter swan. They first tried using mute swans to rear trumpeter chicks with eggs from zoos but results were disappointing. They found much better success by hand rearing the young swans in captivity for two years and then releasing them. Michigans goal was to have three self sustaining populations with at least 200 birds each by the year 2000. They came close. In 2000 the population here in southwest Michigan was over 100. A population in the northeast corner of the Lower numbered about 50 and a population in the central U.P. was 191. These populations continue to expand and we routinely see trumpeters on our local waters. Management and habitat enhancement has helped the tundra swan, too. Today hundreds to several thousand can be seen resting in Michigan marshes during their migration to and from the East Coast winter grounds. Though the recovery seems on the road to success, trouble may once again be brewing in the way of a bird flu virus (not Asian) found last year in Michigan swans. More on that later. Carpe diem.