Arctic Waterfowl Stage Annual Winter Spectacle

Once nearly extinct, trumpeter swans now flock by the thousands each winter to the rural farmlands and estuaries of northwestern Washington’s Skagit Valley.

In greater numbers than anywhere else in the Lower 48, they fly down in November from arctic nesting grounds and stay until March, feasting on leftovers from corn, potato, wheat and barley harvests.

North America’s largest waterfowl, snow white trumpeters with black bills mesmerize onlookers with their size, beauty and grace. They stand 4 feet tall and have a wingspan of up to 7 feet.

“They’re so big, and if it’s a real still day, you can actually hear the wind move through their wings,” says John Garrett, manager of the 16,000-acre Skagit Wildlife Area. “It’s like watching a 747 go through the air.”

Trumpeters often share their feeding grounds with their smaller cousin, the tundra swan, standing out like undulating swaths of snow against the deep brown of a harvested field.

A total of 4,094 swans were counted in Skagit County at the end of last winter--2,275 trumpeters and 1,819 tundras. That’s up about 800 from the previous year, according to Mike Davison, district biologist for the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Hunting decimated trumpeter swans in the 1800s, and they were nearly extinct by the turn of the last century. Milliners used their feathers to adorn fancy hats. Women powdered their noses with swanskin puffs. Settlers feasted on their meat.

Stiff hunting regulations and stalwart conservation efforts--starting before the 1920s--saved them from extinction, and biologists credit their rising numbers to wildlife conservation efforts as well as cooperation from farmers and a more conscientious generation of hunters.

Swan hunting is banned in Washington state. Trumpeters are protected throughout their migration range, while hunting tundra swans is legal in several states.

The hunters’ loss is the birders’ gain, for those lucky enough to watch each day as dusk fades and the swans fly to sloughs and other calm waterways for a night’s rest, out of the reach of predators.

Witnessing hundreds touch down against the backdrop of the waning twilight is a sublime experience, says Darryl Thompson, president of Snohomish County’s Audubon Society chapter, which leads frequent tours for the growing number of bird-watchers.

“We’re trying to give people an appreciation for something besides their televisions, their computers and their jobs,” Thompson says.

Wintering snow geese, which migrate from Russia’s Wrangel Island northwest of the Bering Strait, gather in far greater numbers than their larger counterparts.

A flock of 15,000 to 17,000 at a wildlife reserve was spotted on Fir Island one recent afternoon. Russ Canniff, a biologist for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, says he expects the wintering population to reach 55,000 by the peak of the season in late January and February.

Bird enthusiasts rave about the sight and sound of snow geese lifting off by the thousands.

“It looks like a snowstorm in reverse,” says Tim Cullinan, director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society of Washington. “It’s deafening, too, because they all start honking. . . . It just looks like an explosion of life coming off the ground.”

Snow geese, however, can be hunted. Washington’s season lasts from early October to early January and can be cut short if population counts dip too low. That hasn’t happened since 1981, according to Don Kraege, waterfowl manager for the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The snow geese and swans lure such large numbers of bird-watchers that crowd control has become a problem. “It’s becoming as big or more of a challenge to manage people as it is to manage the wildlife,” Garrett says.

So the department is pushing a Watchable Wildlife program to promote ecologically friendly bird-watching and to establish more places like the Johnson DeBay Swan Reserve, a fenced-off observation area in Mount Vernon surrounded by fields and sloughs.

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https://www.swansociety.org/

https://www.audubon.org/