A New Generation of Swans

It seems that every year is a little different for Trumpeter Swans in the Blackfoot, and this year is no exception! At least 36 swans returned to the watershed this spring, including a record number of 13 pairs. There are also two groups of yearlings from last year’s nests around, and one yearling that was released last year.

It appears that a couple of our pairs lost one member from last year. One of these surviving swans returned with a new mate and another seems to have returned with its yearling cygnets but no mate. For this and perhaps other reasons as well, we only had five active nests this year, down from eight last year. However, those five nests were all successful and have produced 20 or more cygnets in all!

Additionally, one of those nests is new this year, and it is near Lincoln, so our population appears to be slowly spreading throughout the watershed. This is also closer to the site on the Bouma Post Yard where Trumpeter Swans attempted to nest in the Blackfoot in 2003, after being absent from the watershed for over a century. And we have swans on several lakes in the Clearwater branch of the watershed as well, all of which bode well for the continued success of Trumpeter Swans in the Blackfoot and beyond.