Timiskaming Birds Forum

A pair of Trumpeter Swans has been hanging out in the pond behind the Tim Horton's in Kirkland Lake for about a week or so.  They are very tame, and will allow people to get quite close, and I have heard that people have been feeding them.  They do not even seem to mind dogs in proximity.  Both birds are tagged, and are likely from the Trumpeter Swan captive breeding and reintroduction program.  Tag numbers are still being investigated.  They have been observed and photographed by a large number of people.  They are not always there, but have come back to the pond repeatedly, so there is a chance they will stay around for a while.

Hi All,

Swan 988 is one that was tagged a year ago February by Beverly Kingdon at LaSalle Park in Burlington.

She will send more info once she gets back to her desk.

Larry Ferguson, Biologist MNR, Kirkland Lake had been kind enough to update me and send pictures. He says the swans weren't there this noon hour. I plan to go tomorrow with Paul and maybe we'll be lucky to spot them.

Gert

Greetings all.  Beverly Kingdon has just informed me by email of the following:

"There is a pair of trumpeter swans with five cygnets flying around Long Lake
and Kirkland Lake.  Please keep an eye out for them and if you are able to
catch the numbers on their wing tags would you please let me know."

If anyone sees anything, please reply to this post, and I will inform Bev Kingdon by reply e-mail.

 

adam knight's aunt took a photo and ther number is E17 the phot is very good i will send it to you mike. the photo was taken on long lake on Oct 20th neat!!

Here are the photos that Murph sent me, taken by Adam Knight's aunt on October 20, 2008 at Long Lake.

I forwarded the photos down to Beverly Kingdon, and here is her response.

Hi Everyone, I have such exciting news for all of you.

I have attached photos of your trumpeters that arrived here in Burlington in the west basin of Lake Ontario, at LaSalle Park Marina on the afternoon of Oct 29, 2008.

In the background of one photo you will see the Burlington Skyway Bridge.  Look at the very left hand corner of that photograph and you will see a small white spot.  That is a very tiny piece of E16’s tail.  This swan arrived with your family.   Our records indicate this swan was their cygnet two years ago.

I banded E17 (female) last winter here in Burlington and unsuccessfully tried to catch her mate, who has broken tags.  He is 417 and will be given a new number with a lock-on matching band.

Two years ago I also banded their "after year two" yearling.

Tomorrow we are going out at 10:30 to try to catch either 417 or one of the new cygnets for banding.

It would be so great for our records if we knew the very latest date and time that these birds were last seen in your area.

We are doing an Ontario nesting site study for the trumpeters and discovering their nesting site would be extremely valuable information to us.  (GPS)  This pair has a very routine migration pattern.

They arrived last year on Oct 30th and have been returning here for years.   We know they have stopped in South River on their way south.

They left here March 23, 2008.  (Left March 25 the year before) This would indicate that they will be back in your area sometime around the end of March.  When they are pleased with their nesting site they don’t desert it unless forced and will return year after year.

This has been a great way to start our winter swanning season.  Thank you so much for sending everything.

January is the greatest time to visit Burlington as last year we had 200 trumpeters migrate here. We caught and banded 95.  Winter sure goes fast here in the south.

It would be nice if a group of you could make a trip down.

Side note; I was born and raised in North Bay.  Good northern blood lets me live out all winter with the swans.  We (my husband Ray and I) volunteer 7 days a week, monitoring, feeding, rescuing, delivering and picking up sick and injured swans and banding them.

Cheers
Bev.

Isn't digital networking a great thing?

That is just too cool! Does anyone know of a source where you could inquire about a certain bird? I'm just wondering if there is a way to find out where the swan ( tag #A32) that i saw this summer ended up. But i guess that must be tough, I guess it was just coincidence these birds were spotted in Burlington, i guess the swan i saw could be in some remote marsh.....who knows.

January 29, 2009

Hi:

Sorry i didn't answer your request sooner but i just discovered this site.  You were asking about trumpeter swans A32.  He is a male.

He was banded by me in February 2008 at LaSalle Park Marina in Burlington as a cygnet (baby) and his parents are E17 and E40.

 Knowing where these swans are nesting would be very important information for us. 

 Somewhere in this site I caught a glimps of the photgraphs I sent of the family E17 & E40 October 29th, 2008 when they arrived here in Burlington.

All the cygnets that arrived with this set of parents are doing extremely well, are losing their brown/gray feathers and starting to get lighter in colour.

The cygnets that arrived here this year with E17 & E32 are now banded  E35, E36, E37, E38 & E39 and they are all female cygnets. Another set of quintuplets for Northern Ontario.

 I am not sure that I could ever find this site again so it would be better if you corresponded with me at bev.ki@sympatico.ca if you have any other questions.

Bev.   

Hi All,

The following is an -mail from Bev regarding the swans..keep an eye out . If you see any please contact Bev. her e-mail is in the response above.. Gert

 "Hi Gert,

Get your neck exercise in shape so you can start keeping your eye on the sky, call everyone and be prepared.  J

The first eight swans left a week ago and were reported in Orillia last Sunday.

Yesterday three swans that were at LaSalle at 4 pm were seen over at  the Credit River today at 4 pm.   Winter is coming to an end.  Ta da…….

I looked up E17 and family records and they usually leave here around mid March give or take a couple of days.

When they arrived last fall I checked their arrivals down here and always within five days of the 25th of Oct."

Terry from Moose Haven Resort informed me yesterday that the Trumpeter Swan tagged E17 arrived on Long Lake again this year. It was first observed on October 18 at 11:30 am.  Two young both appear to be injured on the right hip or legs.  This is almost to the day when they appeared on Long Lake last year.  (I will send a note to Beverly Kingdon to this effect.)

 Also, there was an adult swan last night at Hilliardton Marsh in cell 4b at the south end.  It was dusk when I spotted it, and try as I might, I could not determine in the fading light if it was a Trumpeter or a Tundra.  The latter is more likely, and there was no wing tag evident.  I will try to visit the marsh this evening again to see if I can get a positive identification.

During a phone call between Terry Petznick's wife Carol and Beverly Kingdon of the LaSalle Trumpeter Swan reintroduction project, Carol confirmed that there are four cygnets at Long Lake and that two are injured.  Also, the male parent swan has not appeared yet.  Beverly forwarded this information to me by email.

There have been other cases where a mate has been ill/injured and the single parent has arrived alone at LaSalle, Burlington only to have the mate arrive at a later date. Beverly says, "We have even had a mated pair arrive with a cygnet missing, had one adult leave for two days and then return to LaSalle with the missing cygnet. These experiences always give us hope. Will keep our fingers crossed for our wayward male. I sure hope he is OK. This family has been such an exciting and nice friendly family to deal with."

 Picture of my first trumpeters. Apparently, numbers E34, E04, and 143 showed up today, and one of the cygnets was not present. I have pictures of the 3 other adults, but they are too far away. The injured cygnet was able to take off along with # E17.

 

Hi Serge. Your post says E04. Just thought I'd get you to verify that that's not a typo, since E40 is the expected mate for E17, and Beverly Kingdon has no record of an E04.

 It could be a typo, but not mine. I took the info from a photo of Terry's note on the wall. My guess is that it is likely E40. If you check out his site, you'll see photos of swans from as early as 2006. On the note, 143 first arrived 23 October 09. Note re years 06, 07 & 08 show swan # 417. 08 shows swan # 417 and E17. I take it those are 2 separate birds.

Yes, E17 and 417 are different birds - they are a mated pair. E17 is the female. The tag on 417 was broken, so over the winter of 2008/09 the male known as 417 was captured and rebanded, and now bears tag number E40.  It appears from Terry's notes that this same mated pair has been showing up every year since 2006, or maybe he just picked up his girl in 2008!

Hi Bev and others,

E35 swan was seen last week at about 80 km north of Ville-Marie Qc.  Bev, I can send you pictures if I find your email.  So it's about same height than place of birth in Kirkland lake.

Jonathan,

Here is her Email address. It was in one of the earlier messages. Keep us posted as to what she says, and let us know where in Quebec, unless it is nesting and the location is sensitive... bev.ki@sympatico.ca

Thanks for the address.  The bird was pictured last week on a large beaver pond beside road 391, about halfway between 101 and Rémigny.  That's about same height than Tomstown on the map.  I have to friends from Rouyn that will visit many times in the next weeks to confirm if it's nesting.  Since we know it's a female, I don't think it should be swimming around if it has a nest with eggs.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=r%C3%A9migny&oe=utf8&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=R%C3%A9migny,+T%C3%A9miscamingue,+Qu%C3%A9bec&gl=ca&ei=964NTKqyGYLGlQfavIncDg&ved=0CBcQ8gEwAA&ll=47.81961,-79.451752&spn=0.437085,0.877533&z=10

Here is the answer I got this morning:

 

Hi Joe,

Great news you send us.  Yes she is a female hatched in 2008, is a cygnet of E17 and E40 from Kirkland Lake area.  She is too young to breed (although we have had some breed and fledge cygnets at age two)  There are no clues that would show signs of breeding/mating.  During hormone season, regardless of their age they do develop a red line along their bottom mandible and that is the only change they have.    One would only know if they were breeding/mating if one saw the “action” and it looks quite “mean” as he appears to be trying to drown her.  It appears as if there is a fight going on but it only lasts for a very short period of time.

 

She would have been on a nest by now if she was old enough to breed.  Cygnets are hatching this week thru to the end of June. 

 

Thanks so much for sending us this information. It is very valuable for our tracing records.  It is also exciting to hear the location of this swan as she is right on track for the original migration route to the north, that hopefully will be re-established in decades to come.

 

Bev.