Photo: Tundra Swans, Randy Streufert
Tom Blackburn
The Tundra Swans are back in town! Between 200 and 400 of these magnificent birds are spending the winter in the Great Marsh of Belmont Bay and will leave in mid-March for their breeding grounds in the tundra of far northern Canada near the Arctic Ocean.
“Swanfall” is the term used to describe the annual return of swans to their winter home. In years gone by, the residents of Mason Neck maintained a Swanfall telephone tree to alert each other when the beloved swans returned. Their haunting “oo, oo, oo” calls are nothing like the calls of the similar-looking Trumpeter Swans, which sound like the first attempts of a fourth grader to play the trumpet.
Members of Lewis and Clark’s 1804 Corps of Discovery were the first Europeans to see and hear Tundra Swans, which they called Whistling Swans. Of course, the swans were well-known to the Inuit, Athabascans and other Native Americans of the far north, who hunted the swans for their meat, eggs, and feathers.
Tundra Swans, Randy Streufert
Tundra Swans breed in widely-spaced nests, about one for each ¾ square mile, but they stay fairly close together on their wintering grounds. They lay 3 to 5 eggs which hatch in about 30 days. The young, or cygnets, fledge about 65 days after hatching. The adults molt and are flightless for about a month while the young are at the nest. The adults and cygnets leave the breeding grounds in late September. They fly in flocks of up to 100 birds in a V formation, as high as 26,000 feet, and often reach air speeds of 100 miles per hour. After resting and regaining weight in North Dakota and along the northern Mississippi River, they fly nonstop to the Chesapeake Bay, eastern Noth Carolina and the tidal Potomac River – a total trip of about 4,000 miles each way. The cygnets accompany the parents for their first year, then disperse when they arrive back in northern Canada.
The best spot to see the Tundra Swans is from the Woodmarsh Trail, a mile-long trail in the Elizabeth Hartwell Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge. Turn right off Gunston Road onto High Point Road. The trail is 0.7 miles down High Point Road, on the left. The trail is level but may be muddy and bumpy in spots. The next-best place to see the swans is from the Great Marsh Trail, which is on Gunston Road, 1.5 miles after the intersection of High Point Road. This trail is 1.3 miles long, paved and fully accessible. Regardless of which trail you take, try to time your visit near high tide, when the swans are closer to the viewing area. You can get tide information here. Bring binoculars or a viewing scope if you have them. There are fixed binoculars at both viewing sites.
Mason Neck State Park is offering nine free guided walks to see the Tundra Swans in December and January. For more information and registration, see the park’s website.