Swan team members helped protect farm fields. Photo: Shelly Ament
2021–2022 Season Summary
You can find the OPAS Swan Team's 2021–2022 data-analysis graphics here.
by Liam Antrim and Laura Davis
The 2021–2022 winter was the 11th season for Trumpeter Swan (TRUS) monitoring in the lower Dungeness Valley by OPAS-led volunteers. A team of experienced and dedicated volunteers completed 23 weekly daytime/foraging surveys between October 27, 2021 and March 30, 2022. This season's daytime survey efforts totaled 162 volunteer hours in the field and 1,166 driving miles.
On survey days, swans were first counted on November 2 (3 TRUS) and last seen on March 22 (30 TRUS). Between mid-November and mid-December, following fall migration, about 80 TRUS were in the area. From early January and until mid-March, swan numbers ranged from about 160 to 180, which aligns well with our data since 2017. The high count for the season was on February 22, with 184 swans. Percent juveniles was generally at 14–15% for most counts.
Figure 1: Numbers of Trumpeter and Tundra Swans Counted, 2021–22.
We saw between one and three Tundra Swans (TUSW) during our foraging and roosting surveys throughout the season, intermingled with the Trumpeter Swans. From a distance, it can be challenging to distinguish between Tundra from Trumpeter Swans. Proximity and good optics help, as well as focus on their relative size, distinctive bill coloration and markings.
Foraging – Harvested corn fields in the area of Sequim-Dungeness and Evans roads, Graysmarsh Lane, and Schmuck Road were the initial draw for foraging swans. By the end of November, the corn stubble had been turned under and the swans went elsewhere, west of the river and onto pastures and winter grain cover crops. While swans demonstrated foraging fidelity at some locations (near Evans Road, Clark Farms pasture, Schmuck Rd./Port Williams area, Lamar Lane fields), the birds also sought out new locations in January. Survey teams located swans on pasture and hay fields near the Sequim sewage treatment plant (north of Port Williams Road) and east of the Sequim Valley Airport. By mid-February, foraging swans had completely abandoned former corn fields and were focused on other locations.
Although about 75% of foraging swans were east of the river on the pasture near Evans Road for the first two survey weeks in February, no swans were counted there on subsequent surveys. A few swans explored new pasture locations off Towne and Medsker roads in mid-February, but on February 22, all swans surveyed east of the river were on fields in the Port Williams and Schmuck roads area. Fields hosting swans west of the river were pasture and hay fields in two general locations – adjacent to the Sequim Valley airport and at the north end of the Wheeler Farm off Ward Road.
Figure 2: Observed foraging locations used by Trumpeter and Tundra Swans, 2021–22
Observations of foraging-location usage averaged over the entire survey season are summarized in Figure 2. A few corn fields received 20% of the swan foraging effort overall but this was limited to the fall and early winter. A few acres of carrots accounted for 13% of foraging observations, although this usage only started when the area was hit by a mid-winter cold snap. Pasture and hay fields cover much of managed fields in the lower Dungeness valley. These fields account for nearly 60% of all swan foraging over the winter, with increased use as spring approached.
Martha Jordan, Northwest Swan Conservation Association's Executive Director, provides us with insight into swan foraging on developed landscapes. Swans tend to eat corn and other carbohydrate-heavy foods during the winter months for survival during that time. As they stage for migration, swans tend to prefer grass grown for dairy cow feed, which is typically higher in protein than other grasses. This can pack on the energy stores for their migration and arrival on breeding grounds in good condition. “Dairy farms are vital to our winter swan's survival” according to Martha Jordan. Before dairy farms, swans likely foraged in marshes, wetland and estuaries which were more abundant before humans ditched, drained, and converted lands for agriculture.
Because poor visibility hampered WDFW's midwinter aerial surveys, local WDFW wildlife biologist Shelly Ament used our January 25 data for the Sequim-Dungeness component of her work. This season's midwinter data contributed to the five-year North American Trumpeter Swan Survey which had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roosting – About a dozen volunteers participated in dawn roosting surveys organized each month between November and March. We regularly survey at Kirner Pond/Gaskell Slough, Roberta's Pond near 3 Crabs, Gierin Marsh/Graysmarsh, hunting-club ponds west of the Olympic Game Farm (PWGF), Cat Lake on the Miller Peninsula, a private pond near Happy Valley and another private pond between Sequim and Port Angeles. We see that swans typically depart roosting sites shortly after sunrise, but they sometimes linger further into the morning at Gierin Marsh and Cat Lake, perhaps benefiting from available wetland forage.
Roosting counts were 5–10% higher than daytime forage counts on both December and February surveys, which indicates swans foraging beyond the reach of our daytime surveys.
Frigid conditions in late December led to ice cover at most freshwater roosting sites into early January, and some nighttime usage was observed on Dungeness Bay and Clapp Farm. By the January 19th roosting survey, ice had thawed but patterns of roosting and foraging had shifted and about 75% of the swans were located roosting on Gierin Marsh on the Graysmarsh property. John Gussman's drone photography has proven the best method for ensuring a thorough count at this location, although we cannot identify swan species or age. On February 17, half of our swans were on Gierin Marsh, followed by Roberta's Pond and Kirner Pond and PWGF. By the time of our March 10 survey, PWGF had been intentionally drained, so there was low water and hence no swan usage.
Swan Team volunteers count swans as they fly from their Gierin Marsh roosting site. Photo: John Gussman
Roosting-site neighbors continued daily monitoring at a few sites during the 2021–2022 season. In recent years, the private pond in Happy Valley has been used by dozens of swans, and the pond east of Port Angeles has had consistently at least one regular TRUS group. This winter played out very differently with as many as 55 swans roosting in November in Happy Valley, but no swans seen after early December. At our area's west-most roosting pond, swans were sighted briefly in the fall but none otherwise during the survey season.
Daily roosting monitoring at Kirner Pond (conducted primarily by Bob Phreaner) provided a detailed set of observations at this site. Between mid-November and mid-December, swan counts averaged about 50 per night. In late December, icy roads prohibited these early morning surveys and a frozen pond mostly kept swans elsewhere, except curiously on the morning of January 3 when 33 swans were seen standing on the frozen pond. Ice had melted by late January and swans had returned to Kirner typically numbering between 30 and 70 each morning. Although in recent years, swans have abandoned usage at Kirner Pond in late January, the swans continued roosting here well into February.
Hazardous power lines at Kirner Pond had been removed in 2021, motivated by an OPAS-led, crowd-source funded collaboration with Clallam PUD and WDFW. No swan injury or mortality was noted at Kirner Pond this season, confirming the success of this mitigation.
Mortality and Mitigations – This season, the only reported swan mortalities in the Dungeness Valley were attributed to power line impacts along Evans and Anderson roads. WDFW retrieved three dead swans as well as several Canada geese along Evans Road, although the property owner reported that more fatalities had recently occurred. WDFW, Clallam PUD, and the property owner consulted, and PUD immediately removed a short segment of overhead line across a corn field (power to a summer-use irrigation pump). Clallam PUD and the property owner reached an agreement, and over the summer of 2022 trenches were dug to bury the lines along Evans Road adjacent to the agricultural fields. By the third week of October 2022, the trenching was completed, overhead utilities moved underground, and poles removed. No crowd sourced funding was requested for these mitigations. Today there are no overhead obstacles posing hazards to swans in flight at this important location between the Gierin Marsh and Kirner Pond roosting sites.
In the last few days of December 2021 with snow covering the valley, swans discovered an unharvested carrot field at Clapp Farm (southeast of the Anderson and Lotzgesell intersection). On December 29, a swan-team member reported half a dozen swans in the carrots. Swan interest ramped up every day until, four days later, our team saw 96 swans foraging in the field. Some of these carrots were particularly valuable, intended as a seed crop in 2022. The farmers requested assistance through WDFW's Shelly Ament. Starting on January 4th, WDFW, volunteers from the swan team, the farmers, and friends assisted with mitigations. Past experience indicated that poles and flagging would not be adequate to deter the swans from landing in the field – they could land nearby and walk over to the carrots. Ground cover fabric was spread out and surrounded by poles with flagging to cover roughly two-thirds of the carrot field.
Again this year, some team members assisted WDFW and helped protect farm fields from incurring swan damage before harvest. Photo: Shelly Ament, WDFW
Even with ground cloth deployed, swans returned continually to search for carrots on uncovered ground and to work fabric edges to expose more carrots. Through much of January the farmer visited the field several times each day to haze off swans with shouting and arm waving. Martha Jordan has advised us that multiple strategies in combination are always necessary to deter foraging geese and swans. Swans flew back and forth between the carrot field and nearby fields – Clark Farms pasture to the west and a harvested potato field at Delta Farm east of the river – presumably motivated by hazing and other mitigation activities on the Clapp Farm field. Unnecessary flights always pose extra risk to these large birds beyond to the energy resources required.
Where it meets the farmer's needs, covering the crop seems to be a very good option for reliable crop protection. The swans can work around poles and flagging, and irregular hazing does not protect the crop. In this case, the cover fabric did protect some of the covered crop, and carrots in seed were visible over the summer of 2022.
WDFW found one dead juvenile TUSW along Anderson Road near the Clapp farm on January 3, which was confirmed as a power line electrocution. During this time swans were being hazed off the carrot crop and were flying routinely. With advice from WDFW and OPAS, Clallam PUD installed some diverters on power lines in this area. Shelly and the OPAS Swan Safe team will be working with PUD this fall to proactively install additional diverters prior to PUD's busiest season.