Trumpeter Swans released in the Blackfoot in previous years are returning to the valley in good numbers this year! Here is a little information to catch you up on the activities and movements of our Blackfoot trumpeters in the past few months.

Since we have no radio transmitters on any of the Blackfoot swans, we rely on sightings of swans with collars and leg bands to determine their locations. This means that the movements of many of our swans are unknown once they left the watershed last fall to migrate south. However, we’ve been fortunate to have many people in Montana and beyond contact us about several of the birds, including our 2 families raised in the Blackfoot last summer.

Both nesting pairs (9P8 with mate 5P8, and 6P3 with mate 3P6) along with their cygnets from 2011 spent the winter in the Ruby River Valley of Montana, mostly on spring ponds on private ranches that had open water most of the winter. We’ve been very fortunate in the last two years to have Curtis Kruer from the Ruby Valley gather valuable information about our wintering swans for us. I was able to visit the area in February, and it was a kick to see “our” Blackfoot swan families in a totally different part of Montana, appearing healthy and strong. The cygnets had lost much of their gray feathers, and were primarily white but still had quite a bit of gray on their heads and necks. Just like kids—they change every time you see them. 0A6, released in 2010 in the Blackfoot, spent the winter in the Ruby valley also, while its companion from last year, 0A5, wintered in the Clearwater. Both are back in the Blackfoot now.

Swans 6A0 and 6A1 (released last summer) had been together late fall near Ovando until 6A0 left 6A1 behind in November. 6A0 spent the winter along the Clark Fork River near Drummond, and 6A1 stayed on a local wetland until December when there was very little open water left. 6A1 must not have gone too far, because it returned in early March to the same wetland. A month later 6A0 rejoined it and they are both now in the valley.

6A5 was released in the Blackfoot last year as a yearling and was located by a landowner on the Colorado River in Southern California on February 28th. That’s about 960 miles, as the swan flies, from its release location! Swan 6A7, also released last year, was first sighted back here in March in a local rancher’s corral. It has since remembered it is a waterfowl and not a bovine and is sticking to nearby wetlands. There are several other adults in the valley as well, some in pairs, and most appear to no longer have their collars, so we will have to wait to see if any of them can be identified by leg bands.
Both of the successful pairs from last summer are back on their territories, vigorously chasing other swans away and doing some home improvement projects (nest repair). Last year’s cygnets, now juveniles, are on other wetlands in the valley and probably trying to figure out what they’re supposed to do next since mom and dad don’t seem to want them around anymore.

Thanks to everyone who has sent in sightings! Remember to watch for these great white birds in the local wetlands and please let us know if you see any.

For the first time in nearly two centuries, trumpeter swans have successfully nested in the Blackfoot Watershed and we are proud to announce that seven cygnets are healthy and doing well! The humble beginnings of swan restoration to the Blackfoot began in 2003 with a concerned landowner and morphed into what we know today as the Blackfoot Trumpeter Swan Restoration Program, a collaborative effort of private landowners, local schools, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming Wetlands Society, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Montana Wetlands Legacy and Blackfoot Challenge to release over 100 trumpeters into the watershed to establish seven breeding pairs of swans. After eight years, we are thrilled to bear witness to this momentous event.

To aid in fundraising for the Swan Restoration Program, a stunningly beautiful handmade quilt, donated by Patti Bartlett, a Seeley Lake teacher whose students have participated in learning about and helping release swans, will be raffled and 2 winners will be selected to hold and release a trumpeter swan on May 23rd, 2012. The finished quilt is 56” x 72”. Raffle tickets sell for $20 each or three for $50. The drawing will take place on May 23rd, 2012. To purchase, please contact the Blackfoot Challenge office by phone at 406-793-3900 or email: swan@blackfootchallenge.org Thank you for your support!

Blackfoot Challenge Quilt

Some of the Blackfoot trumpeters released this spring and summer have begun taking wing! Several of our young birds have left their release sites and taken their first flights, trying out their wings as means of transportation for the first time. Appropriately cautious, they have not yet gone far. They are simply hopping from wetland to wetland in the Ovando area, exploring new waters. Satellite radios on a few of them tell us where some are going, and we are sometimes able to go to the sites shown by the satellite locations and check on the birds directly. We have found that some are traveling in small groups, while others have flown by themselves to join swans at other wetlands.

This is an important time for these young swans, as they explore new territory and find out that they can move around under their own power. It is also a potentially dangerous time as they must avoid threats like power lines, fences, and other obstructions, learn how to land and take off safely, avoid predators in new sites, and interact with other swans, all while strengthening their flying muscles and improving their flight skills. But this learning period will be vital to their success as they begin to migrate south for the first time in a few short weeks!

If you observe swans during this time, especially if they are in places you don’t usually see them, please report your observations on the website. This could be important information and help us keep track of these young and now mobile birds!

This spring and early summer, biologists released 30 trumpeter swans on five different wetlands in the Blackfoot valley. The first release, on the Blackfoot WPA along Highway 200 east of Ovando, occurred in May. Over 90 students and their teachers from 6 schools in the watershed helped release the swans, while learning about swan biology and wetland ecology.

Each released swan wears a spiffy red neck collar with an individual letter and number code in white letters, as well as a matching leg band. This helps biologists track the movements and locations of individual swans as well as their fates, when sightings are reported by interested observers. For example, we have learned that some of the trumpeters previously released in the Blackfoot have spent their winters in southeast Idaho and southwestern Montana. We have also learned that several of our released swans have died, from collisions with powerlines, parasites and starvation, legal hunting and illegal shooting, and predation. We have not had sightings of several more, so it is unknown whether they are dead or alive.

However, several swans have also returned safely to the Blackfoot this year. There are at least 3 pairs that have established territories in the valley and will likely nest next year! There are a few more that are hanging out with the young swans that were released this spring, and may form pairs with some of them.

Eight of the swans released this year are also sporting satellite radios on their red and white collars. This allows us to keep tabs on the swans when they move, without having to rely on observations alone. This will be especially helpful when the swans begin to migrate out of the valley in the fall.

So far, of the 30 swans released this year, all but 2 are accounted for and near or at their release locations.

Thank you to all the folks that have turned in swan sightings this summer! The swans have been very visible along Highway 200; you can see them on the Blackfoot Waterfowl Production Area two miles west of the Highway 141 junction and ten miles east of Lincoln on a private pond. The cygnets will begin flying between wetlands as their flight feathers grow back in after their molt. Please continue to send in your swan sighting reports to the website or the Challenge office. This will help us keep tabs on the swans as they begin their preparations for migration.