June 1, 2003 - June 2, 2003: Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut. She has moved 500 miles further north and is located near the Inuit town of Taloyoak on the Boothia Peninsula. This peninsula extends north into the Arctic Ocean with the Gulf of Boothia to the east and Larsen Sound to the west. Similar to our other two radio-equipped swans, she has returned to nest in the same area that she did last year. We expect she will stay here all summer to nest and raise her brood.

May 28, 2003: Thaolintoa Lake in south-central Nunavut. The swan has made a stop in central Nanavut, probably waiting for warmer weather on the breeding grounds. She appears to be headed towards the Boothia Peninsula where she nested last year.

May 3, 2003 - May 24, 2003: Cedar Lake Manitoba. The swan has left the prairies and is now in the boreal forest region of Canada. This area is dotted with large lakes and coniferous forest. Cedar Lake is located in west-central Manitoba just west of Lake Winnipeg.

April 12, 2003 - April 26, 2003: Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota. She has stopped near Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Prairie Pothole Region is most noted as a waterfowl breeding area, however, it is also an important staging area for migrating swans. They are able to rest and replenish nutrient reserves on the numerous small wetlands that dot the landscape. She stopped in this same area on her spring migration last year.

April 4, 2003: Lake Huron - Saginaw Bay Michigan. The marshes of Saginaw Bay are known as a stopover area for migrating waterfowl. Last year, this swan stopped near Long Point, on Lake Ontario during her spring migration. This year, she seems to have bypassed Lake Ontario and gone on to Lake Huron.

March 19, 2003 - March 27, 2003: Lake Erie - Lake St. Claire - Lake Huron. The Great Lakes is the first major staging area for swans after leaving their wintering quarters. They gradually move through the Great Lakes Region while waiting for winter to clear further north. From here they shift their migration to a more westerly track.

March 14, 2003: Lake Erie near Long Point and Aylmer, Ontario. She has made a big jump this time, moving over 400 miles to the north shore of Lake Erie. Long Point is a well-know waterfowl migration area and a good proportion of the swans that winter on the East Coast stop here. They may stay for several weeks building up energy reserves and waiting for the weather further north to improve. Several of our radio-equipped swans have stopped here during migration both in the spring and in the fall. This swan stopped in this area during her spring migration last year but bypassed Long Point on her way back south last fall.

March 10, 2003:  Chesapeake Bay near Onemo, Virginia.  The swan has begun its migration back to the artic starting with a small 100-mile hop from North Carolina to the Chesapeake Bay.  There are several scattered flocks that use the Chesapeake Bay during the winter and on their migration. They feed of submerged aquatic vegetation such as wigeongrass or eelgrass, and invertebrates in the shallows of the bay.

December 13, 2002 – March 6, 2003:  Albemarle Sound, North Carolina.  Another swan has bypassed Virginia and is wintering in coastal North Carolina. She traveled approximately 500 miles southeast from her last stop in the Midwest. This area of North Carolina is a well-know wintering area for tundra swans with some of the largest concentrations of birds along the east coast.  This swan was caught on Popes Creek in Northern Virginia on March 14 of 2002.  It’s possible that this was a swan that we caught while on its migration north from Carolina last year.  However, there may be some swans that move to different wintering areas from year to year depending on weather conditions.  One of the objectives of this study is to assess site-fidelity, that is, to see if the birds go to the same locations year after year. 

October 4- October 9, 2002: South Knife Lake, Manitoba. This swan has moved an additionally 300 miles south into Northern Manitoba. This is the southern edge of the boreal forest. She had traveled through this area during her spring migration. This is her first long stopover since departing the artic in September. This will give her and her cygnets a chance to rest before continuing south through the prairies where they can take shorter hops while feeding on the nutrient rich wetlands and agricultural fields.

September 30, 2002: Southeast Nunavut, west of Kaminak Lake. The swan has left her nesting area on the Boothia Peninsula on the start of winter migration and has traveled 500 miles south. She is located about 100 miles west of the Hudson Bay coast and 120 miles north of the Manitoba border, in the Province of Nunavut. This is a slightly more easterly route through the tundra than she took on her way north.

June 10 - September 26, 2002: Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut. This swan has remained in the same general location on the Boothia Peninsula for the entire breeding season. Similar to the other two radio-equipped swans in the central arctic, she has not started moving south yet. The two radioed swans that nested in the western arctic just started moving south within the last week or so.

June 10, 2002: Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut. She has moved 220 miles further north and is located near the Inuit town of Taloyoak on the Boothia Peninsula. This peninsula extends north into the Arctic Ocean with the Gulf of Boothia to the east and Larsen Sound to the west. Weather reports from this area indicate it was a very late spring here this year. She will need to begin nesting very soon in order to hatch and fledge a brood before things freeze back up again this fall.

June 6, 2002: Central Arctic, Nunavut (Northwest Territories). She moved ~600 miles north and is located east of the Queen Maud Gulf Bird Sanctuary in the Keewatin District of Northwest Territories. She is now in arctic tundra habitat along the Back River drainage. She is also about 200 miles east of swan #33892.

June 2, 2002: Northern Manitoba. She moved 200 miles northeast into northern Manitoba. She is located on the southern edge of the boreal forest and appears to be headed for the central arctic like swan #33892.

May 4-28, 2002: West-Central Manitoba. She moved 550 miles northwest to the northern end of Lake Winnipegosis. Swan #33892 was also located here in early May but has since moved north to Lake Athabasca. This area contains a wide diversity of wetland habitats including small ponds and lakes, and large lakeshore marshes. She has stayed in this area for nearly 4 weeks. She is probably waiting for the weather to clear and for the ice to melt further north so she can resume her migration.

April 17-30, 2002: Eastern North Dakota. She has moved 50 miles west to the North Dakota-Minnesota border and is located in the Red River Valley just north of Fargo, North Dakota. Many of the other radio-equipped swans have moved through or are currently located in this same general area. This swan moved north up the valley between April 21-30 but did not leave the area until early May.

April 13, 2002: Western Minnesota. She has moved 750 miles WNW and is located in western Minnesota, south of Fergus Falls. She is probably on her way to the Red River Valley, just 50 miles further west, where many of our other swans have stopped.

April 1- April 4, 2002: Southern Ontario. The swan has finally moved out of Virginia, and is located 350 miles to the northwest near the town of Woodstock in Southern Ontario, Canada. She is only about 35 miles north of Long Point, Ontario where two of our other swans (33888, 33892) are located. The fact that several of our swans have stopped here highlights the importance of this area to migrating waterfowl.

March 23, 2002: Popes Creek, Virginia. The swan is still in the Potomac River area near the place it was captured. The other three swans that were captured here (33888, 33892, 33894) have all gone north and are now in the Great Lakes Region.

March 14, 2002: Popes Creek, Virginia. This swan was caught near George Washington’s Birthplace National Monument in Westmoreland County. She was caught relatively late in the winter season. A number of swans have already left this area and started their migration north. We’re not sure how much of the winter season she spent on the creek. She could have been here all winter, or she may have come here from an area further south.