(Fwd) SWAN NEWS
Norm Saunders (osprey@ARI.Net)
Fri, 19 Dec 1997 19:00:51 -0500
From:"Marie I. Michelson" <MMichelson@Defender.Defenders.org>
Organization: Defenders of Wildlife
Subject: SWAN NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 19, 1997
Contact: Joan Moody 202-682-9400
x220
THE SWANS HAVE LANDED!
CRAPO, EASTERN SHORE, MD -- The swans
have landed! A small group of magnificent
trumpeter swans--the largest waterfowl in North
America--successfully completed a 103-mile
experimental migration from Virginia to the
Eastern Shore of Maryland at 9:05 a.m. EST
today, following an ultralight plane across the
Chesapeake Bay.
Three female swans -- YoYo, Sid, and
Isabelle, made their flight in view of the nation's
capital behind the plane and pilot they treated as a
"parent swan" without knowing some people would think
they were making history. The flight was the maiden
voyage of a project to restore the trumpeter swan to the
East Coast after an absence of almost two hundred years.
The Migratory Bird Project, a partnership
between Defenders of Wildlife and
Environmental Studies at Airlie, undertook the
experiment earlier this year by raising and
training seven swans hatched at Airlie. They
were assisted by Operation Migration of "Fly
Away Home" fame in the flight. The trumpeter
swans will winter at a farm in Crapo, Maryland
managed by Defenders of Wildlife and are
expected to return to their takeoff point in Airlie,
Virginia in the spring.
Swan supporters are thrilled the birds
made such good time in a flight that had been
expected to take two to three days with
stopovers. The trumpeters lifted off from a
cornfield near Warrenton, Virginia into the early
morning light on Thursday, crossed the
Potomac, made a stopover at Bud's Ferry,
stayed overnight at Magruder's Ferry, and
resumed their flight again at 7:50 a.m. EST
today. Total flight time for the 103 miles from
Auburn, Virginia to Crapo, Maryland was just a
little over 4.5 hours, making the swans' average
speed about 26 mph. "We had the wind at our backs
and were
able to make good time as soon as the birds clued into
the fact that we were on migration," said lead pilot
Gavin Shire. "They stuck with me all the way. They were
great and the weather was perfect. It was clear
visibility and you could see the whole expanse of the
Chesapeake Bay below us. The Coast Guard followed below
us. It was an incredible sight."
"This is good news at its best. For once wildlife
conservationists had the wind at our backs," added
Rodger Schlickeisen, President of Defenders of Wildlife.
"Our usual work involves trying to prevent losing a
species or a habitat. We're too often losing something,
but here we're trying to get ahead of the curve by
restoring something. We're trying to bring back a
magnificent species of wildlife with an important role in
the Chesapeake Bay for the benefit of future generations."
Defenders of Wildlife also has championed other wildlife
restoration projects, notably reintroduction of wolves in
Yellowstone and other areas.
Schlickeisen and other swan supporters at the
Eastern Shore landing site had more than one reason to
celebrate the success of the maiden voyage. Although the
flight was expected to take longer, the birds fortuitously
landed on the 77th birthday of swan expert Dr. William
Sladen, Director of Environmental Studies at Airlie.
"This is a happy birthday for me. I am most happy
to see these birds arrive safely. I've studied trumpeter
swans and tundra swans for more than thirty years and this
is the realization of a dream for the restoration of
migratory trumpeters on the Eastern Shore," Dr. Sladen
said. "The project is the result of a wonderful team we
have at Airlie, Defenders of Wildlife, and Operation
Migration."
Building on the techniques first used with Canada
geese as depicted in the movie "Fly Away Home," The
Migratory Bird Project has worked for months this year to
raise the swans and plan their journey. The experiment
has provided new groundwork for future wildlife
migrations. If all goes well, scientists will
repeat
the experiment on a larger scale with more trumpeter
swans in a migration next fall from New York to
Maryland.
Today's high-flying swans began as cygnets born
at Environmental Studies at Airlie in Warrenton,
Virginia, form the core group of the first migration.
Separated from their natural parents before hatching, the
swans have been imprinted on humans and trained to follow
the ultralight. The human-led migration
utilized
the ultralight migration training techniques pioneered by
Bill Lishman of Operation Migration of Canada and Dr.
Sladen. Operation Migration assisted The Migratory Bird
Project with the flight; pilot Joe Duff flew the
second
ultralight plane behind Shire.
The trumpeter swan is the largest Ä and, some
believe, the most magnificent Ä species of North
American waterfowl. Once heard throughout temperate
and arctic North America, its melodious "co-ho-co-ho" call
disappeared from the Atlantic Flyway soon after European
colonization. YoYo, Sid, Isabelle, and other trumpeters
hatched in the project still retain some of their
adolescent gray coloring, but will turn completely white.
The great white trumpeter swan, with its
diagnostic all-black bill, vanished as a result of
commercial feather collection, hunting and agricultural
conversion of wetlands. (Tundra swans, which winter in
the Chesapeake region, also have a black bill but are
smaller than the trumpeters.) Trumpeter swans were early
victims to fashionable society's need for powder puffs and
feathered hats.
Defenders of Wildlife, a leader in wildlife
restoration efforts such as reintroduction of the
Yellowstone wolf, notes that trumpeters are unlikely to
return the eastern seaboard on their own because migration
routes are passed from one generation to the next.
Restoring an eastern population will ensure the long-term
survival of the species because remaining populations in
the lower 48 states are vulnerable to such perils as
continued loss of wintering habitat. The concentration of
wintering flocks at relatively few sites makes them
vulnerable to disease. There are no trumpeter swans east
of the Great Lakes, where the population is just beginning
to migrate.
"The ultimate goal of The Migratory Bird Project is
to restore migratory trumpeter swans to the eastern
seaboard," says Bob Ferris, Director of Species
Conservation at Defenders of Wildlife. "It was thrilling
to
see the swans fly into the farm for landing today
because it was the culmination of the first part of a
journey for all of us involved in the experiment as well
as
for the birds. Geese and other waterfowl immediately
gathered around as if to greet the trumpeter swans after
their species' long absence from the Eastern Shore."
Citizens can learn more about trumpeter
swans and view photos of the magnificent white and
gray birds on the worldwide web by checking
Defenders of Wildlife's website at:
www.defenders.org. # # #
===============
Norm Saunders
Colesville, MD
osprey@ari.net