TUNDRA SWAN BEAUTY FOR THEY AND SPORT FOR THEM
The Tundra Swan is not to be confused with the Trumpeter Swan which is protected as a fragile existence by authorities and Game and Fish throughout America. Note the Yellow upper beak which is usually just a yellow splotch from beak to lower eye, the Trumpeter Swan has a black beak and large black wingtips so they are easily identified in the water or the sky. All Swans are beautiful in the sky! Wingtip to wingtip easily measure 6′ and nose to toes with legs extended behind them easily 4′ and more; large and really outstanding waterfowl.
Many states including ND have limited hunting seasons for Tundra Swan about the same as all waterfowl except that ND uses the Lottery system to distribute a finite number of ‘tags’ the same as for big game–the size of the Tundra perhaps qualify it for this methodology to manage the population for health and longevity of the breed. I was fortunate to secure a tag in 2017 and was so surprised to get it that I had no plans of where to hunt for this bird as I had never at that time seen one in the wild! Game Warden inquiry indicated I may have to travel to the famous waterfowl migration route east of Bismarck to an area around Steele, ND. Quite a trip and would require overnight and……….. So I procrastinated as the season is quite long.
Later that fall I was Pheasant hunting north of Dickinson near Killdeer and was having lunch with my hunting host and mentioned the Tundra Tag; my friend said I think there is a flock on the farm Dam west a few miles. His son scoffed that they were snow geese. We decided to take a drive and have a look. They were 6 Tundra Swan! Four adults (pure white) and two young (grayish blue) and they were all beautiful. The Tundra are a bottom feeding fowl like Mallard Ducks and the Dam was shallow. The pasture had been well grazed and access to sneak up on the group rather limited. Nothing ventured nothing gained so I selected a morning and arrived while dark and attempted an 1/8 mile crawl to near the water edge. I could hear the swans ‘talking’ before dawn and they were close but it was too dark to see and I waited. Hunting is allowed 1/2 hour before sunrise and while still murky and before shooting time the swans ventured further into the middle of the Dam. No shots today. Three times I tried to approach the fowl and three times I failed.
My successful stalk started a good two hours before dawn and I parked east of the Dam over a small hill and proceeded south toward the original homestead where I would turn back north after progressing into the creek below the Dam. There had been several dams built along the creek which are now abandoned but each dam had to be crossed (carefully) minimizing my silhouette to the active Dam. I arrived at the Dam face before dawn and I could hear the swans ‘talking’ on the other side! I waited and a rancher in a jeep appeared on the north side of the access road, delivering his daughter to wait on the school bus. The bus came and went and the rancher waited I think to see what I was going to do but finally left for morning chores.
The time has come to rise up and select a target expecting the swan to go airborne, they raised their heads in alarm but slowly paddled north along the dam face! I followed walking along with them about 10 yards away–what an adventure! They turned west along the bank and continued their slow journey and I followed–then I see another flock of about 8 swans that had apparently stopped on their migration south from Canada. Tundra Swans are not sociable with other groups and my group did a U-Turn to the other side of the Dam water and proceeded back to the starting point! Suddenly they decided to fly, they start flapping their wings whose tips splash on the water and they start running so that each webbed foot step provides thrust to help then rise and once free of water contact their legs tuck in toes trailing behind and begin to get altitude; at this point I took my swan, beautiful, exhilarating and thankful.
A gifted taxidermist provided immortal ‘life’ by posing the swan in flight, wings extended and his head and neck turned as making a turn, the only one I have seen that way. Tundra is on the wall at the Dickinson Game and Fish Office at Patterson Lake, Dickinson, ND for posterity.