Photographs by Gary Ivey and David Thompson. Left to right: On February 13, 2023, trumpeter swans received GPS/GSM tracking collars at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and Summer Lake Wildlife Area. Collared swans at Summer Lake were released on February 14, 2023. GoogleEarth map of one GPS swan's travels. Trumpeter Swan @12 reported in Alberta during migration.
Tracking Oregon Swans
By Gary Ivey
The numbers of migrant trumpeter swans moving through eastern Oregon have increased dramatically over the last two decades, particularly at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (ODFW) Summer Lake Wildlife Area. The Trumpeter Swan Society (TTSS), ODFW, and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge partnered in a study of the breeding ground origins and migration paths of this once much rarer species.
In 2022, TTSS was awarded a grant from the Oregon Conservation and Recreation Fund to support research on these migrant swans. The research involved marking them with solar powered Global Positioning System (GPS)/Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) neck collars and tracking their paths to their summer destinations.It is so interesting to see where a swan travels during the year!
TTSS purchased 13 collars for this project that were placed on trumpeters using Malheur Refuge and Summer Lake. The cost of one collar was provided by The Friends of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to support the study.
Swan capture and marking
Catching flighted swans is no easy task. One of the best methods is to use bright spotlights to confuse them on a very dark night when the moon is waning or, with heavy cloud cover; the darker the better; and rain or snow really helps. Capture also involves a fast airboat that will allow access to shallow wetlands the swans are using. February 13, 2023 was such a night.
I enlisted the help of Malheur staff to capture the swans on the Refuge’s half-frozen Benson Pond. John Megan was our boat pilot and Alexa Martinez, and Zack McCoy skillfully netted the swans while I boxed them to hold them for marking. John was no stranger to night-lighting and skillfully maneuvered the boat over ice and through marsh shallows to chase the swans. We had 7 collars to deploy at Malheur. The temperature was cold, about 15 degrees with 15-20 mph winds, and snowing. Capture took two hours. We caught and marked 7 adult trumpeters. It was pretty miserable for our crew and I was getting an ice cream headache.
Not so far away (~100 miles) the Summer Lake Wildlife Area crew were also catching swans that night. They marked 5 adult trumpeters with GPS-GSM collars, plus 5 with conventional coded neck collars, leaving one GPS-GSM collar left to deploy.
Western Swans with tracking collars
Western swans are being tracked through GPS/GSM tracking collars. "GPS" means Global Positioning System.
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See the autumn migration of trumpeter swans captured and collared during the winter in Oregon. See where they spent the summer and the areas they traveled through on their return to their winter grounds in Oregon.
Autumn migration of trumpeter swans collared during the winter in Oregon
This Google Earth map shows the autumn migration routes from trumpeter swans with GPS/GSM tracking collars to their return to wintering grounds in Oregon.
The red lines and pins are the travel routes and locations of swans collared at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (Oregon).
The yellow lines and pins are travel routes and locations of swan collared at Summer Lake Wildlife Area (Oregon).
Female swan @13's summer movements are on the other photo. Do you see her red pin in British Columbia very close to Yukon and Northwest Territories?
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Here is where female swan @13 traveled around her nesting area during the summer
See how a trumpeter swan travels around its summer wetland
Female swan @13 received her GPS/GSM tracking collar during the winter in Oregon. She migrated north in the spring to British Columbia. She spent the summer at Maxhamish Lake Provincial Park and Pretected area. This is a 67,990 acre provincial park in British Columbia.
The yellow lines show her travels around the area where she spent the summer. She was flying to other nearby areas to feed, and perhaps to explore.
Check out the autumn migration photo to see where she was along with the other swans with GPS/GSM collars.
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This swan was captured and collared in winter at Summerlake Wildlife Area in Oregon. It was spotted with its mate in Alberta, Canada
GPS/GSM swan that winters in Oregon travels in spring to Alberta
This swan spends the summer in Alberta, Canada and spends the winter at Summerlake Wildlife Area in Oregon.
The white GPS/GSM collar has black solar panels that keep the battery charged. The collar collects location information every 15 minutes. When the swan passes a cell phone tower, the information in the collar is downloaded so the swan's locations are tracked!
Photo by Edith Mackenzie
Results
The first two years
Twelve Oregon trumpeter swans (7 from Malheur Refuge and 5 from Summer Lake Wildlife Area were captured and marked in February 2023. They were fitted with GPS-GSM collars for tracking. Data on locations, date and time is stored by the collar and transmitted for downloading when the swan goes near a cell phone tower.
The swans departed their winter sites at Malheur and Summer Lake in mid-March through mid-April. Spring migration was NNE through eastern Washington, Idaho and northwest Montana, then north through eastern British Columbia and Alberta, to areas east of the Rocky Mountain Range.
The swans arrived at their summer destinations between April 8 and May 8. Five summered in Alberta, three in Northwest Territories, and one each in NE British Columbia and Yukon Territory. They departed for their wintering sites between September 19 and October 28, 2023
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Oregon GPS collared swan migrations
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Oregon GPS swans summer locations
Table and maps of swan locations
Summer locations for the past 2 years and the latest data transmission dates are provided by the table below. Five of the collars have not submitted data since April 2024. In 2024, for the seven collars remaining active, they all returned to the same summering site used in 2023. Also, we have data on 11 of the 12 showing they returned to winter at their capture sites. This demonstrates their strong fidelity for both their winter and summer sites which is characteristic of this species. Migration routes for the study through December 2024 are shown in the last figure.
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Current and last locations as of December 2024
Summer locations for the past 2 years and the latest data transmission dates are provided by the table above. Five of the collars have not submitted data since April 2024. In 2024, for the seven collars remaining active, they all returned to the same summering site used in 2023. Also, we have data on 11 of the 12 showing they returned to winter at their capture sites. This demonstrates their strong fidelity for both their winter and summer sites which is characteristic of this species.
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GoogleEarth maps of 12 GPS/GSM collared swans
Oregon Trumpeter Swan Research Education Packet
Grade 7-12: Oregon Trumpeter Swan Research Education Packet. Created for older students with conservation information and math activities including GoogleEarth tracking of GPS collared swans. Students will become familiar with actual GPS swan tracking of 12 western swans through GoogleEarth, with additional enrichment through two webinars. Click on the book cover photo to download the packet.
