A Not-Too-Cooperative Trumpeter Swan, Newville, Pennsylvania, May 25, 2021

A late May and early June 2021 trip to the Mid-Atlantic and New England states gave me an opportunity to add a few species to my statelists in the region.  Although the primary focus was to visit relatives, there’s always time to squeeze in at least a little birding.  Since I used to live in the area my statelists there are pretty good, but there are usually at least a few targets to hope for – often there is a rarity or 2 that might be around when I’m in town, and occasionally a few remaining regular species that I haven’t yet run into. 

The first stop was in south-central PA, so I set up an eBird Needs Alert for that state prior to our visit.  Lots of “needs” popped up, though of course PA is a large state.  So with limited time I had to narrow the list down to the nearby counties.  A few of the less common but regular migrants were on the list, but they would surely move on by the time I arrived.  Instead, my attention went to nearly daily reports of Trumpeter Swans in Newville in Cumberland County.  It was a nesting pair in a small marsh along a public road in Newville, back for at least their second consecutive year.  It would be a bit of a drive so it would be my only birding stop for the visit.  But since they sounded like a pretty reliable pair of birds, it seemed like the right target to pursue. 

I was out of the house early on May 25 but was slowed by an accident along my route.  The delay meant I’d only have a few minutes to look for the birds but I wasn’t too concerned.  When I finally arrived at the marsh I pulled up slowly to this nice wetlands, fully expecting to almost instantly see 1 or 2 large white birds with a quick scan. 

But there were no white birds to be seen.  I drove the length of the marsh not once, but twice, and still didn’t see the Swans.  I pulled over on the shoulder and got out for a closer inspection.  Despite several binocular scans I still couldn’t find the Swans.

I was thinking of giving up when I noticed a car driving up toward me slowly.  My first thought was he was going to confront me for trespassing (even though I was on the shoulder of a public road).  But then the optimist in me thought wouldn’t it be nice if he was actually coming to help me find the Swans.  He got out of the car and greeted me with “Are you looking for the Swans?”  He was the owner of the farm across the road and had watched the Swans fly out of the marsh just a few minutes earlier.  But he said not to worry, they were just out feeding – they usually head to the large pond just to the west - and typically come back in about 20 minutes. 

That was all very heartening, but I had run out of time.  I waited a couple more minutes at the marsh, and then decided to try to see them at the pond.  I had driven by the pond on my way to the marsh and noticed that there were only limited views of the water through the vegetation.  But it was still worth the try.  I started driving slowly by the pond and just as I got to the first opening there was a Swan flying by (with a black bill eliminating a Mute Swan) heading toward the marsh.  I quickly turned around and got back to the marsh just in time to see the Swan heading off to the north over the farm fields.  Not the most satisfying of views but good enough.  And good thing that the farmer came by to talk to me – without his information I probably would have left before it returned.

When I lived in the Mid-Atlantic through the early 1990s the only Swan species in the area were Tundras (formerly Whistling) and Mutes.  Trumpeters had been extirpated from most of its former range, including the entire eastern portion of its range, by the late 1800’s.  But several reintroduction programs across the US and in Canada have successfully brought Trumpeter Swans back to the area.  And even in some cases to areas where they weren’t likely present originally.  More details can be found at this website – www.trumpeterswansociety.org

Trumpeter Swan was #243 for my PA list.  In my statebird map below, the blue states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range, and the tan states are those where I’ve seen it outside its normal range.  At least that’s based on range maps in recent field guides - Trumpeters are now more likely through many states outside of the ranges shown in the guides.  Lastly the cross-hatched states are those in its range where I’ve yet to see this species.