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This elegant male Trumpeter swan is one of the oldest documented anywhere
among his endangered species. For over four decades, Solo, as he was named,
has been returning to the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge west of Spokane,
WA and has become an icon in the Inland Northwest.
Solo and his first
mate raised several families including Turnbull's last nest of Trumpet
cygnets in 1987. After his mate was killed on their nest in 1988, Solo has
returned every year to defend his territory. He attracted a few females to
the refuge but never produced offspring. It was feared Solo had grown too
old to procreate.
It is not known where
Solo winters but each year he returns to the refuge within a day or two
after one of the ponds has thawed enough for a thirty pound bird with an
eight foot wingspan to land and take off.
In 2009 Solo returned
with a mate. On Father's day a brood of four cygnets was hatched. The
wildlife biologist watched through a scope as Solo stood guard and the
mother swan led her cygnets off the nest and into the water. Male swans are
attentive parents and help raise their cygnets.
In late December 2009
it was feared that Solo may have been the trumpeter shot on a river north of
Spokane, but on January 25, 2010 he returned to the year's first big patch
of ice free water at Turnbull. This time he did not return alone. Solo was
joined by his mate and three of the four cygnets they had produced at the
refuge the prior spring. The staff at Turnbull was all smiles even though
one cygnet was missing - thought to have perished during a flight before
Thanksgiving when ice up forced them out of the refuge for the winter.
Apparently Solo is
getting better with age ~ he and his mate hatched a brood of five in May
2010. The 2009 juvenile cygnets are now on their own.
Update - April
14, 2011: Solo and his family returned to Turnbull in early January
2011, but since January 26, only the female and four yearling cygnets have
remained. It is believed Solo and one of the 2010 cygnets were lost, ending
Solo's reign. Solo's disappearance is sad news but his widowed mate and the
seven surviving cygnets may be the restoration of Trumpeters at Turnbull.
photo credits: The
Spokesman Review |
