Swans in South Carolina 5 '12

Bruce and I are adapting slowly but surely to living in the South east.  I still do miss California; especially my daughter, mother, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but I have learned to treasure what I have in this environment.  especially the swans  (I always thought that wild swans and storks were something that existed only in Hans Christian Anderson Fairy-tales)… Wrong!!!!  They are right here in South Carolina.

The easiest place to see  swans is Swan Lake in Sumter SC.  Swan Lake is the only public park in the world to feature all eight species of swans: the  Tundra Swans (Whistler swan, the Bewick swan),  the Trumpeter Swan,   Royal White Mute Swan,   the Black Australians Swan,  Black Necked swan,  the Coscoroba Swan ,and the the Whooper Swan.  Someof these were deliberately imported; some migrated in on their own , but all are thriving

 Many migratory swans are found in the managed wetlands and even in the  retaining ponds around shopping centers.  Here are a few we have spotted, and a bit about each of the species

Tundra swans are native North American Tundra, China.  They are the largest migratory waterfowl species found in South Carolina and measures over 48 cm (4 feet) long with an average weight for adults and immatures of 16 and 13 pounds, respectively. The bird is characterized by its distinctive long, straight neck, black bill,  all-white plumage and unique call.  he Tundra Swan can be further distinguished by its yellow lores. As little as 20 years ago the migratory Tundra Swans were common in Virginia and rarely seen  in South Carolina, but they appear to be migrating ever farther South as their northern wetlands disappear or become polluted.  Tundra swans are not hunted in South Carolina and their main threat is habitat related.

The whistling swan is  the American race of the Tundra Swan, 

Tundra Whistling swan c- columbianus

 C Columbus currently is considered the same species as the Eurasian  Bewick's swan (Cygnus bewickii which is native to Northern Russia from the Kanin Delta to the Lena Delta & migrates to parts of Japan). They were considered separate species in the past.  You can  distinguished them from one another by the large yellow patches on the face of the Bewick's swan.

 Eurasian Berwirk Whistling Swan (aka Cygnus bewickii)

Tundra Whistling Swan (aka cygnus-columbianus)

 Tundra swans are often confused with trumpeter swans, and indeed the two species are very similar in appearance. They are most easily distinguished by their calls and their smaller necks and size. Tundra Swans have high-pitched honking calls and sound similar to a Black goose.  Contrary to their name their calls are not a whistle and  the whistiling swans call is not  notably different from that of Bewick's Swan. The ground call is a bow wow and flight call  a low and soft ringing bark, bow-wow wow....

The Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) is  native to North America, Alaska, Albeta, British Columbia.  It  is the heaviest bird native to North America and is, on average, the largest waterfowl species on earth. It is the North American counterpart and a close relative of the Whooper Swan of Eurasia, and even has been considered the same species by some authorities.  Adults usually measure 54–65 in long, though large males can range up to71 in)or more. The weight of adult birds is typically15–30 lb, with an average weight in males of 26 lb and 21 lb inches females.The wingspan ranges from 73 to 98 in^. The largest known male Trumpeter attained a length of 72 in, a wingspan of 10 ft and a weight of38 lb. That's a really big bird.  Its  larger size , its significantly longer neck, and its distinct french horn like honk can help to distinguish it from the Tundra Swan

Trumpeter Swan with cygnets

 The adult Trumpeter Swan is all white in plumage. As with a Whooper Swan, this species has upright posture and a straight neck at all times.    The Trumpeter Swan has a large, wedge-shaped black bill that can, in some cases, be minimally lined with salmon-pink coloration around the mouth. The bill measures 4.1–4.7 inches. l. The legs are gray-pink in color.

Trumpeter Swan Closeup

 Trumpeters can belong to a migratory and non migratory or a non-migratory flocks.  Most of the birds we see here in South Carolina belong to the latter. but some do migrate in and out and can be seen flying in large noisy  v-shaped formations. 

Trumpeters Migrating have a French Horn tone

 Trumpeters   are usually only found in pristine wetlands with minimal human disturbance
Their breeding habitat is large shallow ponds, undisturbed lakes, pristine wetlands and wide slow rivers in northwestern and central North America. They prefer nesting sites with enough space for them to have enough surface water for them to take off, as well as accessible food, shallow, unpolluted water, and little or no human disturbance

Mated Trumpeters with their cygnets

 Trumpeter Swans  often mate for life, and both parents will participate in raising the cygnets, but only the female will incubate the eggs. Most pair bonds are formed when swans are 4 to 7 years old, although some pairs do not form until they are nearly 20 years old. "Divorces" have been known between birds, in which case the mates will be serially monogamous, with different mates in differing breeding seasons. Occasionally, if his mates dies, a male Trumpeter Swan may not pair again for the rest of his life

White Muted Swan (C. olor)

The Mute Swan (C. olor), has been  introduced to North America from Britain.  It is scarcely smaller than the Trumpeter Swan.  However, it can easily be distinguished by its orange bill and different physical structure (particularly the neck, which is always curved down as opposed to straight in the Trumpeter). The Mute Swan is often found in developed areas near human habitation in North America

Muted Swan

 The Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) is a large waterfowl imported from  Australia.  Black Swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills. They are monogamous breeders that share incubation duties and cygnet rearing between the sexes.

Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) with its white cygnets

Black  Swan with Juvenile

Black Swans are popular birds in zoological gardens and bird collections, and escapees are often seen populating outside their original  collection.  We have watched a two birds spread from a small retaining pond near a starage yard along the 701 hywy to a dozen or more in several of the adjacent ponds along the same highway.  (And that is just what we can see from our passing vehicle.  With further invstigation of the area we might find a lot more)..

 The Black-necked Swan (Cygnus melancoryphus ) is native to  South America, Falkland Islands ).  It  is the largest waterfowl native to South America. The Black Necked Swan migrates to the Northern Hemisphere after breeding in the southern third of South America and the Falkland Islands.  In the United States it found in zoos and collections but but we have not seen it ioutside of collections as often  as it cousins the Muted and the Black Swans have.   Perhaps I am just not recognizing it as a swan when I see it.

The Black-necked Swan (Cygnus melancoryphus)

The average weight of a Black Necked Swan is 9-12 lbs. It is the smallest member of the species , the body plumage is white with a black neck, head and greyish  bill. It has a red knob near the base of the bill and white stripe behind eye. The sexes are similar, with the female slightly smaller. The Black-necked Swan, like its nearest relatives the  Black and the Mute Swan is relatively silent. Also, unlike most wild fowl, both parents regularly carry the cygnets on their backs. The female lays four to six eggs in a nest of vegetation mound. The diet consists mainly of vegetation, insects and fish spawn.

The Coscoroba Swan (Coscoroba coscoroba) is native to  South America, Falkland Islands. It is the smallest of the birds called "swans", averaging 9.3 lbs, 3.3 ft long and 5.2 ft across the wings

The Coscoroba Swan (Coscoroba coscoroba)

The Coscoroba Swan has white plumage except for black tips to the outer six primary feathers, although this black is often barely visible on the closed wing. In flight, the black wing tips are conspicuous. The bird has a red beak, legs and feet.  Again this import may be more common in South Carolina than I know as they look somewhat more like geese than swans.  The juveniles are even better disguised than their parents with brown splotched plumage all over their bodies.

Juvenile Coscoroba Swan

Whooper Swan ( Cygnus cygnus)

 The Whooper Swan (pronounced hooper), Cygnus cygnus, is a large Northern Hemisphere  Swan native to Sweden, Finland, Northern Russia, Japan, China. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American Trumpeter Swan.  While widely distributed in Europe, it has not migrated to the North America. Examples of the species are best seen within imported collections such as those at Swan Garden in Sumter, SC.

Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus at Swan Gardens

    The Whooper Swan is similar in appearance to the  Berswick Swan.  It can be distinguished from the smaller Bewick’s swan in that the wedge-shaped yellow colouration of the bill extends beyond the nostrils, with the rest of the bill being black; in Bewick’s swans the yellow patch is small and rounded.

Whooper Swan Head

Its common name refers to the loud ‘whooping’ calls that it produce.  sThis large white swan tends to hold its neck erect whilst swimming  In spring and summer, some adults may develop rusty ‘stained’ plumage on the neck and head caused by the iron-rich water on which they live.