Tundra swan migration

I woke up this morning to a big white bird on the pond. I haven’t seen one of those out here before. We have lots of Canadian geese, mallards, wood ducks, and a bunch of other species I haven’t identified yet. I thought maybe a swan or a snow goose. The black beak narrowed it down to a swan. Then I read about the Tundra swan migration to Northern California. Sure enough, that’s what it was.

From the Reno Gazette Journal:

Each year, more than 100,000 Tundra Swans migrate from the Arctic to overwinter in the flooded rice fields of Northern California. And through January, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is leading weekly tours highlighting the visiting swans.

“This is the largest concentration of swans on the West Coast in the winter,” according to Brian Gilmore, a scientific aid with CDFW who helped start the tours about a decade ago. “You don’t find swans anywhere else around this area.”

The swans arrive in the fields in early November after several weeks of flight, having traveled more than 3,000 miles from Alaska and northern Canada to spend the winter in the rice fields.

I grabbed the camera and left Señor in the house. Most of the birds on the pond spook pretty easily, so I tried to approach quietly. Even with my telephoto lens, I wasn’t able to get great pictures of it on the pond. Then it saw me and started to fly right at me! I took as many pictures as I could, but it was not easy to focus. These were the best pictures I could get.

I’m hoping to see more this winter. They normally travel is large flocks, so it would be great to see a bunch on the pond at some point.

— KLM