November is a month of dramatic change. Beautifully colored autumn leaves are striped from the trees by raw winds and steady rains, leaving only the stark silhouettes of naked trees to define the landscape. It’s a time of change for the plants and for the animals as well. By November reptiles and amphibians have move into hibernation. Birds migrate while animals like squirrels and chipmunks store hoards of food for the long winter

November is the month when we get our first snow fall and when the small ponds start to freeze up. Next to December, November has the least amount of sunshine. Only 41% of the days will have sunshine. Combine that with shorter daylight, long nights and throw in daylight savings time and you have one cold and dark month. It kind of makes you look forward to the clear but extremely cold days of January.

November is also the time for the great tundra swan migration. We are very fortunate that each November thousands of tundra swans migrating from Alaska and the northern portions of Canada stop and rest in parts of North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

These very large, all white birds fly along a diagonal path from Alaska, cutting across North America, on their way to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Formerly called whistling swans, because of their high pitched whistle-like whoops, they stop in the backwaters along the Mississippi River to rest and eat. The swans rest for several days to few weeks while feeding on aquatic plants. Their long necks enabling them to reach plants that are deeper than the average goose or duck can reach.

The swans will be coming and going for several weeks until the backwaters freezes. Once on their way they will finish the second half of their migration in just a couple of days and spend the winter in the estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic coast.

Tundra swans are slightly smaller than the more familiar trumpeter swan. An adult tundra swan can weight up to 20 pounds and have a wingspan of nearly seven feet. Like the trumpeter swan, the tundra swan is all white with black legs and feet and a large black bill. Unlike the trumpeter, the tundra has a small yellow spot just in front of its eye and the tundra swan holds its long neck straight up, unlike the crooked neck of the trumpeter. The non-native Mute Swan is all white but has bright orange bill.

Tundra swans breed in the shallow marches and ponds of the tundra of Alaska and Canada, hence their common name. Believed to mate for life, a tundra swan can live up to 20 years. The male swan is called a cob and the female is referred to as a pen. Mated pairs will produce only one clutch of young each year, called a cygnet. The yearlings are gray in color and won’t become pure white until they are nearly two years old.

If you are interested in learning more about tundra swans and taking a day-trip to see and photograph them, join me for on Saturday Nov. 13th to the back waters of the Mississippi where we will see hundreds of these beautiful and graceful birds. Call the Outdoor Center at 949-8479 for more information. Until next time…