by Roger Klein // Photography by Mia Klein
These fine birds, Cygnus columbianus, are also known as whistling swans for the sound made by their wings in flight. Magnificent, snow-white in colour with black feet and black bills, adult tundra swans have a wingspan of about a metre and a half. They can be difficult to distinguish from trumpeter swans, which are even larger.
The thousands of tundra swans that grace our shores and skies each spring spend their winters along the Eastern Seaboard, specifically in the Chesapeake Bay area. In March they migrate in large flocks along the shores of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay to their nesting grounds in the Arctic. The birds often show up in large numbers near Grand Bend and in flooded fields near the Tiny Marsh north of Elmvale.
Satellite tracking of these angelic aviators reveals that many of them transect North America, flying more than 6,000 kilometres to the Mackenzie River Delta on the Arctic Ocean near the community of Tuktoyaktuk.
Some of the birds passing through our region continue their journey along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay to nest in the tundra on Baffin Island.
Tundra swans form life-long pairs that remain together year-round. They will also reuse their nests in subsequent seasons.
They fly day and night, covering vast distances with infrequent rest stops. Tundra swans can be seen in our region only during spring migrations, and the species is a must for any birder’s life list.
