What a surprise–American White Pelicans! Walking to a favorite local lake to see the waterfowl passing along our bird migration flyway. This was an unexpected delight. One of the largest birds in North America, it has a wing span of 9 to 10 feet, only outdone by the California Condor, endangered but making a comeback.
We only have one day to explore Ninepipes National Wildlife Refuge. The weather is not too promising, but such is spring in Montana. Over the course of the day we may see sun, then rain, then sun, then clouds. An ever-changing landscape, but the birds are consistent. Waterfowl, songbirds, and raptors alike are nesting and beginning to raise their next generation.
We are 18 miles south of Flathead Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi in the lower 48 states, with over 200 square miles of water and 185 miles of shoreline. The refuge sits in the Mission Valley with the Mission Mountains east and the Salish Mountains west, but the center of our attention is the 1,672 acre lake in the middle of the refuge surrounded by many smaller ponds.
Entrance to Ninepipes is right across the road from the Lodge. You can see a bit of light above the grass line which is the lobby/restaurant entrance. Let’s explore a while before breakfast. It is a bit before 6am and the birds are calling as the sky brightens. Let’s see what surprises we find at sunrise!
What a surprise! On my morning walk around Cattail Lake there were six pair of Eared Grebes. I have only ever seen them in Yellowstone but here they are. I know they nest in colonies, so maybe six pair could be a colony? I’m so excited that we may have baby Grebes close to home this year! The young ride on their parent’s back for the first two weeks of their lives. What a sight that would be! Let’s see what a little research turns up.
Trumpeter Swans, beautiful and majestic, are North America’s largest waterfowl and heaviest flying bird. This dark, windy winter day is brightened by this white beauty keeping an eye on us as she guards her family. Females are called a pens and males are cobs.
Trumpeter Swans are a native species to North America. Most Trumpeters weigh 21-30 pounds, although large males can reach 35 pounds. Standing on the ground, an adult male can stand four feet high. With a wingspan over seven feet carrying that heavy body, Trumpeters need at least 100 yard “runway” of open water; running hard and fast across the surface of the water in order to generate enough speed for take off. What a sight!
Beginning in the late 1800s, Trumpeter’s were hunted to near extinction for their feathers to adorn fashionable hats, skin for face powder puffs, and long flight feathers coveted for writing quills. Aggressive conservation efforts helped the species recover by the early 2000’s. Since they generally build their nests atop beaver or muskrat dens, overhunting of these rodents diminished breeding habitat for Trumpeters. As the rodent populations recovered, the swan numbers improved. One of these years you’d think we’d recognize that this world is a system with each part relying on the others, including animals, bugs, birds, plants and people, hopefully helping preserve the balance. Sigh . . . but we did good helping the Trumpeters since in most of their range there are healthy populations that continue to increase.
Nests are sometimes built on large floating mats of vegetation. Their nest can be 11 feet across and 3 feet high and is often used by the same pair year after year. The young swans, called cygnets, turn white at about 1-1/2 years old. There are usually four to six eggs in a swan’s clutch. Trumpeters have an unusual way of incubating their eggs: they warm the eggs by covering them with their webbed feet. Once hatched in June, the cygnets can swim and feed within 24 hours. By 15 weeks they will have gained over a pound a week reaching up to 20 lbs. and will now be able to fly.
We are told Trumpeters mate for life, but it appears that they change mates a number of times over their lifetimes of more than 20 years. Cygnets stay with the parents over their first winter, but the parents chase them away in the spring as they begin planning for their next family. The young swans stay in sibling groups until about two years old when they themselves start the search for a mate and a new life in a remote open-water area.
