Hundreds of tundra swans have gathered again on the lower Chopawamsic Creek, bugling gregariously and tipping their tails in the air while dunking their heads under to pull plants from the riverbed.

“They’re interesting for the fact that they migrate all the way from the arctic with very few stopovers,” said Tim Stamps, head of Marine Corps Base Quantico’s Natural Resources Section.

Every year, the birds travel thousands of miles to migrate between northern Canada and even eastern Alaska to their winter home along the Chesapeake Bay and the coast of North Carolina.

Stamps said they typically begin to arrive about a week into November and stay until early March. Over the course of the winter, he said, they spread throughout the area, but they gather in huge numbers on the lower Chopawamsic in February in anticipation of their return flight.

“There’s a lot of submerged aquatic vegetation in the creek, which is healthy for the creek and the ecosystem,” Stamps said. “Generally speaking, in late February, when they’re gathering up for the northward migration, we’ll have upward of 500 of them in Chopawamsic Creek.”

This is the social season for tundra swans, which spread out into territorial breeding pairs when they reach their summer homes in the far north.

— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com