For me, anyway. But we had to travel to see them...
Tundra swans visit our home region occasionally, and we'll typically see a couple of them if we travel south to the Merced National Wildlife Refuge during the winter season. But there are never all that many. It was a bit different during our Christmas traveling. We were headed north in the Great Valley past Sacramento and the tiny town of Williams. We then turned west towards Clear Lake and started looking for Snow or Ross's Geese, as we have seen them often in the flooded rice fields in that vicinity. Indeed, we soon saw geese filling the sky by the thousands, and more white birds in the rice ponds.
The white birds were interspersed with Greater White-fronted Geese, and I realized with a start that these birds were huge. They weren't geese at all, they were Tundra Swans, and there were more than a hundred of them!
There were apparently families, as juveniles were dispersed among the adult birds. Tundra Swans are notable in that they mate for life. They breed in the far north Arctic and migrate south for the winter as do so many others. They find winter shelter in the relatively warm climate of the Great Valley. Flooded rice fields provide much of their food needs.
Seeing these majestic birds was a nice beginning to our journey. We saw a number of other beautiful birds along the way, but there have been few posts these last few weeks because we also, ahem, spent a great deal of time with treasured family members for the holidays. I'll try to get caught up before the new semester starts!
This was a rare event for Mrs. Geotripper and I. The Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus) is not a rare bird, but we've only seen them once before, and only for a few moments. Yesterday we saw dozens of them at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge.
We were following the Waterfowl Auto-Tour at the main part of the refuge north of Los Banos, and while we got a couple of nice photos of birds here and there, overall there wasn't much going on until we approached the end of the loop.
There's a short detour at that point that leads to a trailhead for the Souza Marsh Trail. There were a couple of serious birders stopped on the road with tripods and telescopes deployed. I looked north and saw a large number of white birds in the distance and immediately suspected swans, since Snow Geese and the like wouldn't have captured their interest to that extent. We stopped too and a quick look with the zoom lens revealed dozens of Tundra Swans as well as hundreds of other birds representing at least nine or ten species, including Snow Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese, Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintails, American Coots, Pied-Billed Grebes, Great Egrets, and Mallards.
Tundra Swans, as their name suggests, breed in the far north Arctic lands and migrate south during the winter months. California's Great Valley provides an ideal winter refuge with moderate temperatures and plentiful food supplies.
Although the Tundra Swans are smaller than our other native swan, the Trumpeter (which is never seen in our area), they are huge in comparison to the geese and ducks. I took several videos of the swans, but I like this one because of the Greater White-fronted Geese who came floating by in formation on either side of the swan. It shows the size differential well.
The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge is one of a string of refuges along the river floodplains of the Great Valley that provides a winter home for migrants like the swans and geese, but also a natural habitat for our year-round species. I'm amazed at how little known they are even in our local area. We only saw two other vehicles on the loop when we were there on Saturday. It is a serene place to visit.
The refuge includes a beautiful new visitor center (along with the resident cat named Lucky) that is a good starting point for a visit. There are three auto-tours in the immediate vicinity and several hiking trails.
Winter in Central California is a special time. We never see the beautiful snow crystals covering the land in a wondrous blanket of white, unless it happens to snow in the mountains and we go up to visit it. And that's fine with me. I have no desire to shovel snow off my driveway!
No, winter is special for a different reason. The tundra and muskeg of northern Canada and Alaska serve as the breeding grounds for an astounding number of migratory birds. During the long days of summer there is plenty of food, and they are adapted to deal more or less successfully with whatever predators are around. But for obvious reasons, the birds and their young don't stick around to see what it's like in the cold dark days of winter.
Instead, they make their way thousands of miles to the south and spend the winter along the Pacific Coast and southwest states. By the hundreds of thousands they spend their days in a string of Central California wildlife refuges including the San Joaquin River and San Luis National Wildlife Refuges near my home base at Modesto. One of the most special to me is the Merced Unit, because in six different visits over the last year, we've never failed to be awed by the number and variety of birds to be found there. Sunday was no exception.
I had already watched the Superbowl ads online, and had no emotional attachment to either team in the big game (unlike some of my Seattle-area relatives; sorry, y'all), and Mrs. Geotripper wistfully noted that she has never seen a wild swan. I thought about it and figured that of all the places we might look, our best chance would be the Merced refuge. It has not let us down yet.
We took a brief drive through the Bear Creek unit of the San Luis NWR where we saw a lot of raptors, but then we drove a few miles more to the Merced NWR auto tour, a six mile gravel road that traverses part of the refuge. A mile in I saw a huge pillow sized "thing" floating in the water off in the distance. After a seemingly long time, it's neck came up and I realized we had found what we were looking for: the Tundra, or Whistling Swan (Cygnus columbianus).
Don't these two look like they are bowing to each other?
After a moment, a second swam into view, and around the next corner we
saw half a dozen more. It occurred to me that we've probably seen them in the past, perhaps missed among the tens of thousands of Snow Geese and Ross's Geese that winter at the refuge. They are beautiful, graceful birds.
