Tundra swan watch 2022 is underway in Lambton Shores, a traditional stop on an annual migration and early sign of spring in Lambton County.
“They haven’t shown up yet,” Colleen Inglis of the Lambton Heritage Museum said Tuesday. “Hopefully, soon.”
The Lambton County museum located near Pinery Provincial Park marks the Return of the Swan annually to celebrate the often thousands of tundra swans that pause in nearby farm fields during their more than 6,000-kilometre flight from wintering grounds on Chesapeake Bay to the Canadian Arctic.
Melt water and leftover grain from the fall harvest help provide a rest stop for the swans in the area known as the Thedford Bog. Their arrival each year also provides an opportunity for the public to watch and photograph the birds from roadsides.
Inglis said swans typically arrive during the first half of March.
“They’re not really late yet, but we have had earlier sightings than this in the last couple of years,” Inglis said.
Farmland around the museum was once wetland and shallow lakes until it was drained years ago, but the area has remained part of the swan’s annual migration.
Some years, as many as 15,000 swans stop there.
Once swans arrive, museum staff provide updates on its website found at www.returnoftheswans.comalong with details about where the swans can be seen locally and estimates of how many have stopped over, Inglis said.
Spectators typically line the roads along nearby farm fields with binoculars and cameras once the swans have made their way to the Lambton Shores.
“There was a pretty good bunch of swans” last year, “they just weren’t here for very long,” Inglis said. “They were here for maybe two weeks.”
She said recent cold weather may be holding off the swans’ arrival this year.
“There’s still a lot of snow on the fields, and the swans come because they like water lying in the fields and they like to eat what’s left over from the crops,” Inglis said. “It’s still a little bit frozen.”
With milder conditions expected later in the week, “maybe we’ll get some better swan weather,” she said.
The museum is currently open from Wednesday to Saturday for visits pre-booked online.
Inglis said it has a small exhibit with information about tundra swans, plus visitors can also try out an origami craft.