Producer: Vince Patton Videographer/Editor: Todd Sonflieth Videographer: Nick Fisher Additional Photos & Video: Vince Patton, Gary Ivey, Harney County Historical Society
The state of Oregon offers free food and lodging to relocate to Summer Lake, as long as you’re a trumpeter swan.
Young cygnets leave their transport kennels for their first swim at Summer Lake Wildlife Area in southeastern Oregon.
Todd Sonflieth / OPB
Biologists have learned that transplanting swans works best when they are young.
Two cygnets ride in a crate from the Wyoming Wetlands Society to Summer Lake, Oregon.
Todd Sonflieth / OPB
Cygnets imprint on the land where they learn to fly and are much more likely to return to the spot in the future.
Biologists Marty St. Louis and Patrick Hayden take a blood sample and band each trumpeter swan before it is released at Summer Lake.
Todd Sonflieth. / OPB
For several years, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife has been bringing young trumpeter swans from the Wyoming Wetlands Society & and the Alaska Zoo to relocate at Summer Lake. Before release, biologists place bands on their necks so they can be identified from a distance and tracked for the rest of their lives.
Neck bands with large individual numbers will allow bird watchers to identify this trumpter swan for the rest of its life.
Todd Sonflieth / OPB
Resources and Information
Summer Lake Wildlife Area
ODFW: Swans