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Tundra swans tagged for reasearch make a pit stop on Kodiak Island

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  • Tundra swans tagged for reasearch make a pit stop on Kodiak Island

    Source: http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=6095

    Tundra swans tagged for reasearch make a pit stop on Kodiak Island
    Article published on Friday, April 18th, 2008
    By RALPH GIBBS
    Mirror Writer

    If over the last two weeks you?ve noticed a few white fluffy objects flying in the sky, you needn?t worry that winter is upon us again. It?s not snow you?re seeing ? it?s swans.

    ?The tundra swans have been showing up all over the road system recently and getting a lot of attention,? said Stacy Studebaker, a member of the local Audubon Society. ?I saw five on Kalsin Pond on (April 11). There were 19 tundra swans on Lake Rose Tead over the weekend.?

    One of those tundra swans spotted was sporting a new bright blue banded collar.

    Studebaker researched and found that Craig Ely, with the Alaska Science Center in Anchorage and John Whissel with the Swan Research Program in Warrenton, Va., were conducting joint research on tundra swans.

    ?We?re interested in looking at migration patterns from birds breeding in different parts of the state,? Ely said. ?The thing that is unique about tundra swans is they breed from the Canadian border to the coastal fringe of Alaska all the way to King Salmon. It?s like 2,500 miles of coastline that they breed across.?

    What research is showing so far is that tundra swans from different parts of the state and Canada breed at different times. The band helps determine where birds migrate to and from to breed.

    ?From some earlier work, we know that birds that breed on the North Slope go to the East Coast,? Ely said. ?But we also know there?s some interchange. We know that some of the birds that have been marked on the East Coast fly to the Pacific.?

    Officials with the Alaska Sciene Center and Swan Research Center started banding birds in 2006 in six different areas around the state, including the Yukon Delta, North and South Alaska Peninsula, Koyukuk Drainage area, the North Slope and Kotzebue Sound. The bands are brightly colored blue plastic that will be with the swans for life. They have white coding printed on them as well. These coded bands tell researchers where the birds were banded and areas they are visiting.

    Ely said researchers usually catch the birds in July when they are molting after nesting.

    ?I think we?ve probably put on about 600 neck collars, so far,? Ely said.

    This summer the researchers hope to use more advanced technology and band the birds with electronic locators.

    Last year, they received about 300 updates on their birds. Ely thinks this year they?ll have more.

    The banded tundra swan spotted in Kodiak was captured and banded on the Alaska Peninsula on a small lake between King Salmon and Egegik on July 17, 2007. The swan is an after hatch year female.

    ?(After hatch year) indicates for us that it was probably hatched in 2005 or before,? said Susan Savage, a biologist involved with the project.

    Ely said the tundra swans were probably staging in Kodiak en route to another area of Alaska.

    There is another reason for the tundra swan project.

    When the birds are initially captured, they are sampled for the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza.

    ?In North America there has been no H5N1 detected,? Ely said.

    If you spot a banded tundra swan in Kodiak, contact Ely, (907) 786-3526 or visit www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/ and go to the link ?Report a color band bird.?

    Mirror writer Ralph Gibbs can be reached by e-mail at rgibbs@kodiakdailymirror.com.
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