Tundra Swan
One of the two native North American swan species, tundra swans travel each winter from their summer nesting areas on the tundra coasts of the Arctic in Canada and Alaska to the Pacific and mid-Atlantic coasts of the United States, the Chesapeake Bay being a major destination. Their trumpeter swan relatives are bigger and look quite similar, but they spend their winters in the western United States.

Eastern Neck NWR visitors will also see another species of swan, but it is a non-native and, by the unaware, they are mistakened for the tundra swan. Mute swans are a Eurasian bird imported into the United States in the 19th century, most likely because this graceful looking non-migrating bird stays around in the summer. Its expanding numbers and aggressiveness are not, however, welcome attributes in national wildlife refuges. Their image of serene grace and beauty is better suited to city parks, where they were introduced.

The larger mute swan is identifiable by its orange bill and, while swimming, its neck curved, bill pointed down, and sometimes with wings arched over its back. The tundra swan holds its long stately neck erect while swimming and has a black bill. They both plunge their heads and necks under water while eating aquatic plants. The males of both species are larger than the females; the mute swans have wing spans to 8 feet and the tundra to 7 feet.

Mute swans do not nest in colonies. They maintain large territories and are vigorous defenders of their nests. They will attack intruders including people and dogs. Because the territories of these exotic birds take up so much room, nesting ducks are deprived of space that they would otherwise use for nesting, a situation of concern to both refuge and state wildlife officials.

To control or possibly decrease their population, state authorities selectively stop the development of the eggs of mute swans by either addling them or sealing them with a biological substance.

Is There a Viable Population of Endangered Squirrels?

Adams volunteered at the refuge while completing her course work for a degree in biology at nearby Washington College. Manager Kaehney has been relying on a flow of student interns and other volunteers to maintain a continuum of refuge surveys.

With guidance from Kaehney, Adams placed live traps in lines called transects that she had selected in the kind of forest habitat attractive to the squirrels. In the morning she sets the traps, baits them with corn, and returns in the afternoon to weigh, tag, and identify the sex of any that get caught before releasing them again to the wild.

The captured squirrel is led into a special sleeve of canvass developed by wildlife biologists so that the animal can be held without injury to it or the holder. Adams operates with a partner in silence as she performs her duties quickly to lessen stress and to speed the release. The number of fox squirrels caught in the densely placed traps will indicate the extent of their presence.

Will the squirrel be reintroduced if a sustainable population is not present? Probably not if the cause of population loss cannot be identified, says Kaehney. The refuge island is within the historic range of the fox squirrel, but some factor or factors, perhaps the absence of commercial farming that used to prevail on the island, has contributed to the decline.

Listed as federally endangered in 1967, the range of the Delmarva fox squirrel had been reduced 90 percent by habitat losses to only four counties in Maryland. Its historic range included all of the Delmarva peninsula and parts of southeastern Pennsylvania and west-central New Jersey. Recovery efforts, including the placement of nesting boxes, have restored populations in all Maryland counties on the eastern shore and other scattered sites including Chincoteague NWR in the Virginia portion of the Delmarva peninsula.

Larger than the common gray squirrel, Delmarvas are as long as 30 inches and weigh as much as 3 pounds. (Gray squirrels are a maximum of 20 inches and 1.5 pounds). Delmarvas are also distinguished by their round and shorter ears, whitish gray upper parts, whitish under parts, and a noticeable lope as they move about. They feed on the seeds of oaks, hickories, beeches, and pines.