{"id":345340,"date":"2025-12-12T23:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T23:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/345340\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T23:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T23:37:08","slug":"thousands-of-migrating-trumpeter-tundra-swans-descend-upon-madison-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/345340\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of migrating trumpeter, tundra swans descend upon Madison lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Along the shore of Madison\u2019s Lake Monona, a quiet, wintry scene is interrupted by a cacophony of honks, hoots and coos.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s migration season, and thousands of tundra and trumpeter swans \u2014 along with waterfowl of all kinds \u2014 have descended upon the city\u2019s lakes as part of their trip south.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s common for waterfowl like ducks, swans and geese to migrate together, en masse, said Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources conservation biologist Ryan Brady.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cSome of that is because the food resource is there and they\u2019re not overly competitive or territorial,\u201d Brady said. \u201cAnd then, in addition, obviously safety in numbers, from a predation perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SeveralIt\u2019s fun to observe the swans as they move up and down the lakeshore throughout the day. Here, gray or juvenile swans display their landing gear. Photo courtesy of Paula Avelleyra<\/p>\n

In general, waterfowl are what Brady calls short-distance migrants that often linger later into the fall and winter. The birds\u2019 final destination might only be as far as the southern United States, and they only travel as far as food resources force them to.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have a mild year with more open water and less ice, then that means more of them may stick around,\u201d he said. \u201cGenerally late fall and early winter is a really good time to see a lot of different waterfowl as they move south ahead of that ice line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heavy snowfall and an early freeze in northern Wisconsin and Canada pushed many of those Arctic birds south earlier than usual. That\u2019s led to thousands lingering on the mild lakes in Madison.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sumner Matteson, an avian ecologist with the DNR, said with smaller lakes frozen over, migrating waterfowl are searching for areas to feed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are drawn to our larger lakes where open water is visible,\u201d he said. There\u2019s plenty of food available, such as \u201caquatic invertebrates as well as plant seeds such as pondweeds, water lilies, sedges, arrowhead and millet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese dietary patterns help migrating waterfowl survive the winter months and maintain energy for migration,\u201d Matteson said.<\/p>\n

\"AA trumpeter Swan flaps its wings on the shores of Lake Mendota in Madison, Wis. Trumpeters travel in smaller family groups, and a family of six remained close to shore off of Tenney Beach in early December 2025. Photo courtesy of Paula Avelleyra<\/p>\n

Birders across the city have flocked to watch \u2014 and listen \u2014\u00a0to the visitors.<\/p>\n

For Brady, waterfowl are a great gateway for birdwatching. They travel in large groups and their large size and presence on the water makes them easy to spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see a lot of different birds in a small area at the same time, and collectively, it almost feels like you\u2019re watching the last of the migrants for the year,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the ice finally does take over, if it does, then there are going to be a lot fewer birds on the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

The birds are likely to stay until the lakes freeze over. Once they do, they\u2019ll head further south looking for open water.<\/p>\n

\"ASwans move up and down the lakeshore throughout the day. A swan displays its landing gear on Lake Monona in December 2025. Photo courtesy of Paula Avelleyra<\/p>\n

Wisconsin Public Radio, \u00a9 Copyright 2025, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Along the shore of Madison\u2019s Lake Monona, a quiet, wintry scene is interrupted by a cacophony of honks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1147,7221,3,79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-345340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-nature","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345340","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=345340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}