Christmas music has been bombarding us everywhere for the past month and we're all tired of it. Thankfully, today is boxing day- which means no more Christmas tunes for about ten months... but also that I'm a day late with this post.
At a party yesterday listening to the omnipresent 12 days of Christmas while drinking hot toddies (partially responsible for the tardiness of this post), I realized that the bird-laden song is devoid of North American species. This makes sense because it's an English song, but for new birders like me, I wondered about which of the species are likely to actually be part of our American 12 days.
Partridge have been introduced to the Americas (although we do have pear trees), turtle-doves are not found here, and French Hens are a specialized breed of domestic poultry, so they don't count.
We do have swans that a-swim and geese that a-lay, and because those laying geese are most likely the domesticated breeds that grace some Christmas tables, let's talk about our own wild swans.
At a party yesterday listening to the omnipresent 12 days of Christmas while drinking hot toddies (partially responsible for the tardiness of this post), I realized that the bird-laden song is devoid of North American species. This makes sense because it's an English song, but for new birders like me, I wondered about which of the species are likely to actually be part of our American 12 days.
Partridge have been introduced to the Americas (although we do have pear trees), turtle-doves are not found here, and French Hens are a specialized breed of domestic poultry, so they don't count.
We do have swans that a-swim and geese that a-lay, and because those laying geese are most likely the domesticated breeds that grace some Christmas tables, let's talk about our own wild swans.
In New York, where I grew up, we had mute swans in the estuary behind our house. As kids, we used to feed one of the resident pairs from the dock and always named them Pinocchio and Penelope, despite the fact that sometimes there were 6 pairs of Pinocchios and Penelopes. They had adorable cygnets but were nasty and terrifying and kept us off of the beach. Beautiful as they are, these large, introduced Eurasian waterbirds can slurp up a lot of vegetation and out-compete smaller waterfowl, making them a conservation concern for many native species. In places like New Zealand (where they are also introduced) mute swans are considered the property of the queen. But in the Americas flocks are starting to get so large that they need to be controlled. The flock in our little estuary now numbers in the hundreds every year.
So, that leaves us with the trumpeter swan and the tundra swan. Both of these are cold-weather birds, and are not common in most of the lower 48. Trumpeter swans only grace Canada's plains, Alaska and part of the Prairie Pothole and Great Lakes regions. Tundra swans breed in the arctic circle and migrate to spend their winters along estuaries on the Pacific coast, parts of the Mid-Atlantic seaboard, a little of the great lakes and in some of Utah. If we were going to spot seven swans a-swimming in either my childhood home of New York, or my current home in the Central Valley- they'd probably be tundra swans.
Tundra swans are monogamous species that grace our wetlands and farmlands in the winter. Chicks stick with their parents until the next year's breeding season, so family groups and flocks may be spotted. Traditionally spending their winters on wetlands, tundra swans are now forced to over-winter on open fields in some areas where wetlands have been drained: sometimes leading to conflict with farmers. In places like the central valley though, initiatives like the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership between Audubon California, The Nature Conservancy, and Point Blue Conservation Science, are providing the science, funding and logistics to target flooding of rice and arable fields in the winter so that waterbirds and waders have the habitat that they need to survive. In many cases, flooding fields instead of burning them can lead to lower pest pressure, better breakdown of stubble, and habitat for native fish species. A California-based study by Bird, Pettygrove & Eadie from 2000 showed that foraging waterfowl could increase the breakdown of rice straw by 78% compared to areas that waterfowl did not forage in: meaning that in some cases, waterfowl could replace autumn tilling in the mechanical breakdown of straw. These types of win-win situations where conservation and farming can be mutually-beneficial are some of the most exciting studies, in my view.
Trumpeter swans are the largest waterbird in North America and can weigh up to 12 kilograms (about 27 pounds). Because of this large size and their long milky-white feathers (which were used for making superior pen quills), the species was hunted almost to extinction by the early 1900s. Conservation efforts have helped the birds bounce back, but they are still threatened by competition from the mute swan, loss of their wetland habitat, and lead poisoning.
Trumpeters are monogamous species and mate for life after establishing a bond in their first 2-4 years. Birds can live to be over 20 years old, and have one clutch of 1-9 eggs per year. Eggs are large, roughly the weight of 6 large chicken eggs, and take over a month to incubate. Hatching takes 12 hours and is exhausting for the chicks. Because nests are built on the ground they are open to predation, so chicks need to recover quickly to leave the nest and head out onto the water within 1-2 days. These big birds take a long time to grow and develop their feathers and flight abilities- with most chicks fledging after spending over 100 days with their parents.
I've never seen a trumpeter swan, but do remember reading The Trumpet of the Swan by Charlotte's Web author E.B. White. This story of a young boy who helps a swan who can't trumpet learn to write and play a brass trumpet, was one of my favorites growing up and would be a great festive gift for young readers next year. For me, I'd love the opportunity to see and hear a trumpeter swan in real life. Perhaps even seven-a-swimming.
Trumpeters are monogamous species and mate for life after establishing a bond in their first 2-4 years. Birds can live to be over 20 years old, and have one clutch of 1-9 eggs per year. Eggs are large, roughly the weight of 6 large chicken eggs, and take over a month to incubate. Hatching takes 12 hours and is exhausting for the chicks. Because nests are built on the ground they are open to predation, so chicks need to recover quickly to leave the nest and head out onto the water within 1-2 days. These big birds take a long time to grow and develop their feathers and flight abilities- with most chicks fledging after spending over 100 days with their parents.
I've never seen a trumpeter swan, but do remember reading The Trumpet of the Swan by Charlotte's Web author E.B. White. This story of a young boy who helps a swan who can't trumpet learn to write and play a brass trumpet, was one of my favorites growing up and would be a great festive gift for young readers next year. For me, I'd love the opportunity to see and hear a trumpeter swan in real life. Perhaps even seven-a-swimming.
Here is a video about 'Ultimate Animal Dads' that may stretch the analogies a bit.
'He's a big-daddy, a handyman, a good cook, and a stud rolled into one'
HA!
'He's a big-daddy, a handyman, a good cook, and a stud rolled into one'
HA!
Read more: Mitchell, Carl D. 1994. Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator). In The Birds of North America, No. 105 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.