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Photo: Bird Studies Canada/Long Point Bird Observatory

For twenty years, the Tundra Swan population has been increasing across Canada -- particularly around Long Point, Ontario, the most important Tundra Swan area east of the Rocky Mountains.

Now, Canadian researchers are using satellite tracking to follow the birds' 10,000-mile round-trip from their winter home on the Atlantic Ocean coast to breeding ground somewhere in the Canadian Arctic and back.

Scientists are particualrly interested in finding out where the birds stopover while migrating in the spring and fall and how long they rest and eat at those stopover points.

To better understand the species, Dr. Scott Petrie, research director of the the Long Point Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Fund at Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada, started tracking the Tundra Swans with satellite telemetry in 1998.

Breeding in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic

It seems that Tundra Swans breed throughout the Canadian Arctic and Alaska. The summer is short up there, which means there is not much time for the migrating birds to arrive, find a nesting site, lay eggs, raise their young, replace their wing feathers and prepare for migration back to the Atlantic coast.

The swans arrive on the breeding grounds either during the spring thaw or soon after. Despite the fact that not much food is available at that time of year, they start laying eggs.

Tundra Swans are massive birds and they lay very large eggs. However, the swans were at a disadvantage when they left their winter homes on the Atlantic coast-- they were at their lowest body weight of the year. That means that a substantial amount of fat and protein must be added along the migratory route. Just about all of the protein and energy Tundra Swans use to migrate and to lay eggs has to be gained from food found at the spring migration stopovers.

Pit Stops for Fuel

European studies show the range of migrating swans on that continent is limited to around 900 miles. The birds have to make a number of re-fueling pit stops of two to three weeks to be able to complete a migration.

Since Tundra Swans spend half of their lives migrating, those stopover sites-- known as staging areas -- are critical to a successful migration and reproduction season. Long Point is the Tundra Swan staging area thought to be the most important east of the Rockies.

Tracking Tundra Swans

Adult female swans were captured by firing rocket nets over them in wetlands and in flooded fields. After the captured swans were checked for sex and weight, banded and measured, each was fitted with a $3,000 satellite transmitter weighing a mere three ounces.

The birds ranged from ten to twenty pounds. The transmitter was attached to a harness of teflon ribbon around the bird. The teflon harness did not adversely affect the swans' behavior, skin or feathers. Then the birds were released.

A map was created for each of the swans to track its movement on the swans' web page.

E-Mailing the Data

Three satellites orbiting 500 miles above Earth detect the locations of the swan transmitters. From their high altitude, the satellites can detect the presence of transmitters across a 3,000-mile swath of Earth's surface each time they pass overhead.

When a satellite detects a signal from a particular transmitter, it re-checks the signal from several locations as it passes above. The data is translated into latitude and a longitude, downlinked to a ground station in the United States, and e-mailed to the Long Point Waterfowl and Wetlands Research computer within three to four hours of the satellite pass. No matter where the swans go in the world, the researchers can know where they are without leaving their offices.

Two dozen location fixes are received daily for each bird while they are at Long Point. This provides a base of information about their local habitat use. Later, scientists will use that database to determine where the birds are spending substantial amounts of time feeding in farm fields during migration.

Noah, Abigail, Spirit, Bluff and Sir Sanford

In spring 1998, Scott Petrie attached a transmitter to a Tundra Swan he named Noah, after his two year-old son. That same spring, Bird Studies Canada sponsored a transmitter attached to a swan named Abigail after Abigail Becker, the heroine of Long Point.

In fall 1998, Ducks Unlimited Canada sponsored a transmitter attached to a swan named Spirit; the Bluffs Hunting Club sponsored a transmitter attached to a swan named Bluff; and Sir Sanford Fleming College sponsored a transmitter attached to a swan named Sir Sanford.

The Long Point Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Fund is a non-profit, non-governmental Bird Studies Canada (BSC) program.

Swans tracked by the Wild Bird Society of Japan

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Wild Bird Society of Japan wanted to know exactly where swans go from that Pacific Rim nation when they migrate to the Arctic each summer. Society members used a satellite to track signals from tiny 1.4-oz. radio transmitters attached to the twelve-pound birds.

Japan's telephone company, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., made the special miniature transmitters for the birds since the larger and heavier transmitters used to track migrations of dolphins and seals were too heavy for swans to carry in flight.

The first radios were attached to four swans in 1990 on Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island. Signals beaming upward from the flying birds were received by Argos, an orbiting U.S.-French environmental satellite.

Information relayed by the satellite to scientists on the ground in Japan revealed the swans' flight path to their Arctic summer home.

SOURCES: Canadian Wildlife Service, Bird Studies Canada, Long Point Waterfowl & Wetlands Research Fund, Ducks Unlimited, Aylmer District of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Wild Bird Society of Japan, Bluff Hunting Club, S.C. Johnson & Son, Mees Pierson Ltd., Aylmer Order of Good Cheer, Howey Hardware of Point Rowan, and Space Satellite Handbook.

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