I have a 40 acre pond in my backyard. For the past week or so there has been about 75 swans on the pond. I've had Trumpeter Swans in the spring, but these are different. According to my bird book, they are probably Tundra Swans. Are they heading south and where do they spend their summers? Anybody familiar with them?

There are a bunch of swans stop over here on their way south. A few nest here. I always thought they were mute swans. Folks here have obtained mute swans from someplace and put them on their ponds to keep the geese off. These swans have obviously escaped and now nest and migrate back and forth. These mute swans are not a native specie but are protected.

They spend the summers here on the arctic coast

These have just a black bill. Trumpeters have more black on their heads. I think these are Tundra swans. They sure make a racket. I was working on my deer stand by the pond and they swam closer to me as though they were inquisitive. Very cool birds!

Yep that's a Tundra swan. they used to be called Whistlers

A lot of the Tundras winter in eastern North Carolina. We have a permit system and if drawn, you can kill one. I think we get 6,500 permits per year now. It used to be 5,000 per year. I have killed several over the years.

A lot of them nest here on the Yukon River delta. We hunt them, and their eggs in the spring. The last few, left here about a week ago.

We are lucky enough to be able to hunt Tundras in central SD. Shot one a couple years ago. Lots of fun!

Tundra Swans, or as us geezers knew them when we were young....Whistling Swans, are cool birds. They are high latitude breeders, nesting mostly in the tundra (huh, wondered why they called them that!), but that tundra can be as far south as the southern shore of Hudson's Bay, or even the Alaska Peninsula, neither place in the Arctic, but tundra nontheless. We get them twice a year here in this part of Michigan. In the fall they are heading northwest-to-southeast. Vise versa in the spring. It is common for them to come through in big waves, flock after flock for maybe 3-4 days, then nothing until they migrate back through. It is also common for them to poop out on their flight, and sometimes hundreds at a time will raft up on some of the bigger lakes to enjoy some R&R before heading on. The huge agricultural fields in the Thumb of our state, or the vast open potato farms of west central Michigan will hold them too, especially in the spring when the fields are flooded with snow-melt. The vast majority of folks that see them fly over just call them "snow geese" and are clueless as to what they are really seeing. As I've said on here before, their "Woo-woo-wwwhooping" call is one of natures wildest and most stirring sounds as it filters down through a nighttime storm in the fall. Laying in bed during a stormy night and hearing those flocks wing south through the teeth of a fall gale is one of my favorite childhood memories.

There was a large migration through Manitoba 2 weeks ago. They came from the north-east heading south west. Many travel down the RedRiver into Minnisota.
The take in northern Manitoba by the native harvest counters taking any in southern Manitoba.

NC has a tundra swan season.

As J. Morse said, we get them here in Michigan's Thumb by the thousands. They should be here any day-often hear lots on opening day of deer season-Nov. 15th. Sugar beets are about done and a lot of corn/bean fields are harvested also.