Blessed event has wildlife lovers singing a swan song

Missouri's location at the southern edge of the trumpeter swan's range makes the fledging of two cygnets particularly unusual.

CHILLICOTHE, Mo.-With their well-kept secret now public knowledge, two Carroll County residents are basking in the glow of a historic blessed event-the birth of three trumpeter swans.

Bud and Debbie Neptune didn't know the big birds had taken up residence at a pond on their home property until their son, Scott, came to visit during turkey hunting season. He spotted one of the elegant, snow-white creatures on his parent's 1.5-acre pond.

Bud did an Internet search for "swan" and found listings for the National Audubon Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). He e-mailed the federal agency and reported having seen a swan with a red neck collar.

Knowing the color of the bird's collar allowed the FWS to trace it to a restoration program run by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). Within 24 hours, the Neptunes got a call from an IDNR biologist, who was excited to learn that one of his birds had nested successfully. He informed them that a pair of swans had built a nest on nearby property in 2004 but failed to produce young.

In June, the Neptunes got their first glimpse of the whole swan family, consisting of two adults and three gray cygnets ("sig-nets"), as young swans are known. By then, the little ones were about a month old.

Although the Neptunes knew the birds came from Iowa, it was impossible to tell more without knowing the number on the male swan's neckwear. Bud called a friend in the local chapter of the National Audubon Society and asked to borrow her spotting scope, a powerful, compact telescope. With that, he was able to read the inscription "J-94."

According to the IDNR, J-94 was reared in northwestern Iowa in 1990 and released in southwestern Iowa, where it found a mate and formed a life bond. The couple moved south to set up housekeeping, bringing the Show-Me State into Iowa's trumpeter swan restoration program for the first time.

Knowing that the previous year's attempt probably failed due to human disturbance, the Neptunes were careful to shield the birds from public attention. They told their immediate family and a few friends what was going on, but otherwise kept it a secret.

By late August, they decided it was time to announce the news. By letting people in the area know the birds are there, they hope to reduce the chances of a goose hunter shooting one by mistake.

Bud has been an active citizen conservationist for decades. In 1975, he helped gather signatures on petitions to gain voter approval of Missouri's one-eighth of one percent sales tax for conservation. His experience with the swans has given his enthusiasm for wildlife an extra boost, prompting him to join the Trumpeter Swan Society. He has used the Internet to become something of an expert on swans.

He noted that trumpeter swans can live 20 to 25 years, and once they find a good nesting spot, they return to it year after year. Their young often choose nest sites near where they were fledged. Two public wetland areas-Fountain Grove Conservation Area and Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge-offer thousands of acres of wetland habitat within 20 miles of the Neptune's home, creating the possibility that Carroll County could become the focus of a new trumpeter swan population.

Debbie said watching the young swans grow has been wonderfully exciting. "They learn everything by imitating their parents," she said. "They follow exactly whatever mom and dad are doing, eating from the bottom of the pond, oiling their feathers. It has been a lot of fun to watch."

The next thing the cygnets will learn is how to fly. The young birds already have lost about half of their gray feathers. In another month they will be white like their parents and ready to fly. Nearby cornfields will provide an unobstructed training ground for their initial flights.

Trumpeter swans are North America's largest waterfowl, reaching weights of up to 35 pounds and wingspans of 8 feet. Unregulated market hunting and destruction of the marshy areas where they live caused them to disappear from much of their original range in the northern half of the United States.

In Missouri, trumpeter swans historically were most common around big rivers in the northern half of the state. The last known successful nesting by trumpeter swans in Missouri occurred in the mid-1800s.

Several northern Midwest states have trumpeter swan restoration programs, and a number of birds from those programs visit Missouri during the winter. The restoration of wetland habitat here opens the door for swans from other states to recolonize the Show-Me State.

Dave Graber, a resource scientist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, said the last recorded nesting by trumpeter swans in Missouri involved a pair of birds from restoration attempts in Missouri. The birds hatched two cygnets at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Missouri in 1986. The pair of young birds disappeared after a few weeks, however, probably victims of natural predators.

Three-quarters of the world's trumpeter swans live in Alaska. More than 2,500 free-flying trumpeter swans live in the upper Midwest.

For more information, visit: www.trumpeterswansociety.org.

-Jim Low-

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