10
Wednesday, January 17, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
Saving and
protecting
trumpeter swans
One of the developments I
did not foresee when I rolled
into Bend on my Harley in
1951 was that in the year
2018 I’d find myself helping
trumpeter swans.
Trumpeters were once
found throughout North
America, but by 1933 fewer
than 70 wild trumpeters were
known to exist. Extinction
seemed imminent until aerial
surveys discovered a Pacific
population of several thou-
sand trumpeters around
Alaska’s Cooper River.
Since then, careful rein-
troduction by wildlife agen-
cies and the efforts of the
Trumpeter Swan Society
(http://www.trumpeterswan
society.org/) are gradually
restoring the North American
wild population. Finances for
the work don’t come from
government budgets today,
but from generous private
donations and grants.
In Sisters Country, it was
the Cyrus family and their
diversification from farming
into land development that
brought the trumpeter swan
into focus for conservation
efforts.
Pam Cyrus Mitchell and
her mom recalled how they
got started in trumpeters:
“About 19 years ago we
ordered a breeding pair of
trumpeters by mail to reside
on the beautiful 11-acre land-
scaping pond on the property.
“An additional male swan
was donated by Cascade
Meadow Ranch, but it
became aggressive after los-
ing its mate to a predator. It
was hoped that a wild swan
that was hanging out at the
pond would stay, but when
it eventually moved on, a
female was purchased to
complete the pair.
“The swans nested mul-
tiple times, but their eggs
were destroyed by ravens
every spring. Unfortunately,
through the years two of the
birds were lost; one was shot
and killed by an arrow and a
second was mauled by a dog.
Consequently, they were
down to two in 2017.”
Last year, when — as
Robin Gold, a wildlife
rehabber and resident of
Aspen Lakes, puts it —
“nine-million inches of snow
and extended sub-freezing
temperatures hit us” — the
swan’s pond froze over. To
help protect the swans from
the elements, Cyrus’s cap-
tured the two swans and kept
them in a vacant stall in a
barn where they could be fed
and watered. Once the pond
thawed out, the swans were
returned to the open water.
During the summer, one
of the residents of Aspen
Lakes became concerned
that one of the swans had
something wrong with her
feet. Some of the webbing
was gone and the edges had
turned white. Because of her
rehab experiences back east,
Robin was suddenly thrust
into the swan business and
offered a pen in her garage to
help treat the huge bird.
After contacting avian
specialist vets in Delaware
and Pennsylvania, and
Cassandra Lodge at Broken
Top Veterinary Clinic, it
was thought the bird’s feet
were frostbitten and might
have become infected. It was
treated and returned to the
pond, but unfortunately died
later in the summer.
At this time it became a
concern as to what would
happen to the remaining
swan, now named “Eloise.”
Robin saw a larger picture
as the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife (ODFW),
the Cyrus Family and the
residents of Aspen Lakes
began to take more interest
in the welfare of Eloise.
ODFW wildlife biolo-
gist Simon Wray became
involved, and agreed to eval-
uate the Aspen Lakes site
to determine if the location
would qualify to be part of
the trumpeter swan breeding
program.
Once that was approved,
the biologists caught the
swan to ensure that Eloise
was really Eloise and not
Elliot. Aspen Lakes resident
Tim Ross installed a bubbler
in the pond to keep it from
freezing, and Robin volun-
teered to take over the winter
feed supplementation.
She also started FOE
“Friends of Eloise” and
started the ball rolling
toward getting Eloise a
mate and placing their off-
spring into the Trumpeter
Swan Society’s inventory of
cygnets that would become
part of the North American
Trumpeter Recovery Project.
Which gets us to what is
happening to Oregon’s trum-
peter swans today. In 1992,
the Oregon Trumpeter Swan
Relocation Project got going
under the leadership of Dr.
Gary Ivy of Bend.
“Unfortunately, a water-
fowl hunter shot and
killed two of the trumpeter
juveniles at Summer Lake,
but in other parts of Oregon,
trumpeter swans are begin-
ning to reappear,” Dr. Ivy
said.
As proof, a recent report
from a birder over in the
Willamette Valley had this to
say: “While birding around
Brownsmead this morning,
I was told about a group of
seven trumpeter swans that
have been at Coffenbury
Lake (in Fort Stevens State
Park) for a few weeks. As
trumpeters would be county
record birds, we decided to
check them out.
“After some initial con-
fusion and extensive review
of photos of these birds and
other trumpeter and tundra
swan photos online, we have
comfortably concluded that
they are trumpeters.”
Trumpeters are the largest
surviving species of water-
fowl, with adults measuring
four-feet-six-inches to five-
feet-five-inches long, and
some large males that exceed
five-feet-11-inches in length.
The weight of adult birds is
typically 15 to 30 pounds,
and their wingspan ranges
from six-feet-one-inch to
eight-feet-two-inches, while
the largest known male trum-
peter attained a length of six
feet, a wingspan 10-feet-two-
inches and a weight of 38
pounds.
PHOTO BY ROBIN GOLD
Eloise, a local trumpeter swan
who may become an important
element in conservation.
Unfortunately, a new
threat has popped up, tak-
ing a toll on trumpeters. Old
deposits of lead from water-
fowl hunting are still found
in some ponds, refuges and
wildlife management areas
and it’s being gobbled up by
bottom-feeding swans, kill-
ing them.
It’s hoped cygnets from
Eloise and her soon-to-
be-mate will be placed in
the hands of the biologists
of the Trumpeter Swan
Restoration Project and ulti-
mately bring the count of
the species to such numbers
wildlife biologists can relax,
and we will see and hear
them commonly trumpeting
overhead.
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