A most Happy New Year from the WBRA
Photo by Jeff Bectell
As the new year emerges, we would like to wish you all joy, health, growth, and fun.
We look forward to seeing familiar faces and forming new connections in 2023!
What’s new with WBRA
Photo by Andrea Morehouse
Carnivores and Communities
Community meetings
Join us this week as we explore and discuss relevant topics surrounding large carnivores within WBR.
Our discussions will be informed by guest speakers Paul Frame, Provincial Carnivore Specialist, Craig Johnson, Regional Director of the South Region Fish and Wildlife Stewardship, and Mike Ewald, Provincial Problem Wildlife Specialist.
We hope to see you there!
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We would like to thank the Alberta Environment and Protected Areas and Environment and Climate Change Canada for supporting these community meetings.
Stewarding Trumpeter Swans Through the Seasons
The season in a swan-shell
Our 2022 Stewarding Trumpeter Swans Through the Seasons project had a successful second year with 210 swan sightings recorded between March 2022 and November 2022 by landowners, the general public, and trained volunteers.
We would like to recognize the efforts of the landowners and volunteers who connected with our project in 2022 – their contributions provided eyes and ears on the ground and helped with widespread reporting across the WBR area.
Results
Migration Season
In total, volunteers spent 213 hours and covered over 7,111 km to help identify which waterbodies were used by trumpeter swans migrating through the WBR area.
The map below shows the distribution of all sightings across the region during the spring and fall. Unknown swans could be either trumpeter or tundra swans (i.e., could not be identified due to submerged heads while feeding or heads tucked while resting).
Breeding Season
Local landowners contributed information on swan pairs that were breeding/attempting to breed or information on younger pairs that were loafing on WBR waterbodies in the summer. The WBRA Conservation Biologist conducted post-breeding surveys in late August to count breeding pairs and cygnets prior to their first flights
Nests were successfully established on 6 ponds or lakes, and provided a safe first home to 23 new cygnets. Trumpeter swan use of 34 unique waterbodies was reported in the 2022 breeding season. Breeding observations are shown on the map below.
We hope to see you in the spring
Spring migration monitoring will start again in mid-March 2023, so please consider supporting the project by reporting sightings or volunteering! The ultimate goal is to raise awareness of the importance of healthy wetlands for species of concern such as trumpeter swans and to provide assistance to landowners who wish to improve their stewardship of these valuable wetland areas for wildlife habitat and water retention alike.
For more information on the project or habitat stewardship for swans, to report swan sightings, or to volunteer during swan migration monitoring, please contact us at swans@watertonbiosphere.com.
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We want to acknowledge and thank the supporters of our Stewarding Trumpeter Swans Through the Seasons project, Shell Canada-Foothills Legacy Fund, Wildlife Habitat Canada, Alberta North American Waterfowl Management Plan Partnership, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Alberta Conservation Association, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y), and the Land Stewardship Centre.
