A sign relating information on the Tundra Swan can be found at the parking area of the Wildlife Management Area. I just wish we had been through earlier in the year to possibly catch sight of a few of these as they passed by.
The 1,207 acre Wildlife Management Area includes McArthur Lake, which is impounded by a dam, a long earthen berm with a concrete spillway section roughly in the middle. Most of the area is accessible for most of the year with certain restrictions on access to certain areas during nesting times. Many people visit the WMA to view wildlife, particularly in June for moose and during the peak bird migrations in spring and fall.
McArthur Lake is site N7 on the
Idaho Birding Trail.
This vocal swan can be identified by its clear hooting or barking call. It usually has a yellow spot on its bill, though it can be very small or sometimes absent.
Tundra Swans nest on the Arctic tundra in Alaska and Canada. During spring and fall, North Idaho wetlands, such as the McArthur Lake Wildlife Management Area, are important stopovers for migrating swans. Marshes and shallow lakes provide a variety of aquatic plants, insects and mollusks for food. Many of these swans winter in Southeast Idaho, the Columbia Basin and Central California marshes. When they return to the Arctic in spring, swans establish nests on high ground such as hummocks, muskrat houses or beaver dens. Swan pairs stay together year-round and usually return to the same territory to nest each spring. Several decades ago Tundra Swan populations were declining fast; however, through conservation, the population has grown enough that this species is hunted in some states, but not in Idaho.
