Common American Swan
(Tundra Swan)

Audubon painted this swan in London in 1838. He wanted the yellow water lilies to be named Nymphea leitnernia after Edward F. Leitner, a German botanist killed by Seminoles in 1838.

"Dr. Leitner also procured some [flamingos] in the course of his botanical excursions along the western coast of the Floridas, where he was at last murdered by some party of Seminole Indians, at the time of our last disastrous war with those children of the desert." -- John James Audubon

Table of Contents

• Why Are the Swans Here Now?
• Where to View Swans
• When Will the Swans Return in the Spring?

These birds of the arctic tundra are migrating to their wintering grounds on Chesapeake Bay and the estuaries of the east coast. Another population of tundra swans migrate to California's San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys to spend the winter. Migrating during the day and night, their trumpeting calls are heard at a great distance as they fly along in their familiar V-formation. During flight, the swans can achieve speeds up to 100 miles per hour with a tail wind. They have been sighted at elevations of 6000 to 8000 feet where flocks have been struck by aircraft!

Pools 4-11 of the Mississippi River provide the swans with a place to rest and feed on their way to wintering grounds. While here, the tundra swans feed mainly on starchy bulbs or tubers of plants such as arrowhead (duck potato), wild celery, and sago pondweed. The tubers are buried in the mud on the bottom of the river, but the swans are well equipped with powerful legs, large webs, and prominent toes to stir up the soft mud and dislodge the tubers. With their long necks, they can usually reach the bottom by just immersing their head and neck, but sometimes in deeper water they tip up so that only the tail protrudes above the water. Ducks often feed close to swans taking advantage of the small animal and plant material distributed by the swans.

Some of the best places to view tundra swans during migration are located on the Mississippi River between Pools 4 and 8. One of the best places to view the birds up close, is the platform at Rieck's Lake Park just north of Alma, Wisconsin on highway 35. Swan Watch volunteers will be at the platform most weekdays and all weekends from 9 a.m. to dusk through November 23.

Other traditional viewing sites include Weaver Bottoms in Minnesota, and along highway 26 in Minnesota where swans gather in the northern part of the Wisconsin Island Closed Area in Pool 8.