{"id":343263,"date":"2025-12-12T00:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/343263\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T00:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:08:08","slug":"why-hundreds-of-loud-swans-are-flocking-to-madisons-lakes-madison-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/343263\/","title":{"rendered":"Why hundreds of loud swans are flocking to Madison&#8217;s lakes | MADISON MAGAZINE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve been near Madison\u2019s lakes in the last week or so, chances are, you\u2019ve heard an loud screeching noise coming from the water. The culprit: hundreds of swans.<\/p>\n<p>Each November and December, two swan species pass through Madison during their fall migration from the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic to\u00a0Chesapeake Bay and the mid-Atlantic Coast. The length of their stay on\u00a0Lake Mendota and Lake Monona depends on weather conditions and can range from days to weeks, according to\u00a0Stanley Temple, the Beers-Bascom Professor Emeritus in Conservation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Swan close-up\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6939b177a143f.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A swan glides on Lake Mendota by Tenney Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                                    Photo by Lily Spanbauer <\/p>\n<p>As they travel, the swans make distinct vocalizations to defend territory, signal threats or communicate with family members, according to Sumner Matteson, a Madison-based avian ecologist.\u200b The two types of swans, trumpeter and tundra, each make distinct calls. Tundra swans, the more common of the two, have a high-pitched whistling call. Trumpeter swans, which were recently reintroduced to the Midwest through a recovery program, have a distinct trumpet-like call (hence the name).<\/p>\n<p>To catch a glimpse of the swan swarm, Temple recommends Tenney Park or the Lakeshore Nature Preserve.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Swans from Lakeshore Nature Preserve\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6939b18be7fa6.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Lakeshore Nature Preserve is one of the best places to catch a glimpse of the migrating swans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                                    Photo by Lily Spanbauer <\/p>\n<p>More than witnessing the absurdity of hundreds of loud swans in Madison&#8217;s lakes, Matteson says that seeing the birds can serve as an important reminder.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey [the swans] are an integral part of our natural heritage and a constant reminder to conserve our precious natural resources that contribute to the amazing biodiversity we are blessed to experience,\u201d Matteson says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lily Spanbauer is an editorial intern at Madison Magazine.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bCOPYRIGHT 2025 BY MADISON MAGAZINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.<\/p>\n<p>                                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.channel3000.com\/madison-magazine\/about-us\/subscribe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n            <img  data- class=\" img-responsive lazyload tnt-prop-img\" width=\"1280\" height=\"435\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve been near Madison\u2019s lakes in the last week or so, chances are, you\u2019ve heard an loud&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-343263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}