Learning Science on the Fly: Kids Track Swan Migration

The Idaho Statesman

June 7, 2001

Not much is known about the migration of Western tundra swans, the
majestic white birds that stop along the Great Salt Lake each spring and
autumn on their trips between California and Alaska.

But now, because of the "Shadow-a-Swan" project spearheaded by two Bountiful, Utah, schools, biologists know this: The birds do not make a beeline for the marshy winter feeding grounds in California and Nevada nor a sweeping, linear flight to the breeding grounds of Alaska.

"There's quite a bit of start and stop and movement backward," said Tom Aldrich, waterfowl program coordinator for Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources.

Radio signals from the neck collar of one of the Shadow-a-Swan birds—dubbed James Swan 007 by the students—tracked him this spring from Nevada north to the Idaho-Oregon border, southeast to Utah's Bear River Bird Refuge and north again into southeast Idaho.

"Flying is an energetically demanding activity, so you'd assume it would make them move in straighter lines. I've found that fascinating," said Aldrich, who supervised the collaring of the birds and answers students' questions on the Web site Shadow-a-Swan.

It all started last year when three educators—Allison Riddle, fifth-grade teacher at Bountiful's Meadowbrook Elementary; Dwight Brown, Bountiful High science teacher; and Brandon Thacker, instructional specialist in the Davis School District's technology center—dreamed up a project that attracted U.S. $30,000 from corporate foundation grants.

The idea was to fit swans with radios that would send a signal to a satellite. The data then would be converted into latitude and longitude and provided to Thacker, who posts the swans' location and manages the Shadow-a-Swan Internet site.

70 Schools Have Participated

Students in 70 schools from as far away as Maryland have participated, Thacker said. Many of the classes make predictions about where the swans will go next and how far they will fly. High-schoolers also research the habitat along the swans' paths.

The first two swans were collared in the spring of 2000, but they promptly pecked off the radio antennas.

Last November, 20 fifth-graders and high school students went to the Bear River Bird Refuge in Box Elder County to help collar eight swans. Each was captured by using a helicopter and a gun that shoots a net over the bird.

Within three weeks, four of the birds' radio collars no longer were transmitting.

"Swans are tough, strong," Aldrich said. "When they put the bill to the plastic, they are really able to destroy stuff."

There is no reason to suspect the birds are dead. In fact, two of them have been spotted by bird-watchers, who used binoculars to read the numbers on their collars. Lulu was seen near Fallon, Nevada, in early March and Melvin at Farmington Bay on March 15.

One of the swans never migrated south, meaning it might have been injured. The bird snapped off its radio antenna in late March.

Only three birds still are transmitting to the satellite.

Last week, fifth-graders at Meadowbrook Elementary found all three when they logged onto the Internet in the school's technology lab. Webster was near Calgary, Alberta; Skooter was just north of the Montana-Alberta border, and James Swan 007 had landed near Preston, Idaho.

Tyler Mills, who remembers holding one of the silky swans last fall, adopted James Swan 007 for his weekly predictions.

"This time I thought he'd go 40 miles (64 kilometers) and he went 61 miles (98 kilometers)," Tyler said.

The "Best Part of Fifth Grade"

Jed Miller, Colton Thomas, and Nick Monte said tracking the trekking swans—along with the accompanying math and science lessons—has been the best part of fifth grade.

"It's interesting on the Web site how you can see the swans, how they fly a long distance and then slow down," Jed said.

Whitney Hill has especially liked having real data to make graphs. "It taught me how to do graphs better," she said. The children graph distances flown over time.

"It's a real mix of math and science," said Riddle, their teacher. "It's the first time I've really been able to teach probabilities and data analysis and really relate it to real life. The kids are eating it up."

She hopes next month's tests show the students have sharpened their math skills, which could help her win more grants to continue the project.

Thacker said four more swans will be collared next fall with U.S. $5,000 remaining from one of the grants. By then, the batteries on the three remaining swans probably will run out. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources also is trying to come up with some money.

The migration patterns of ducks and Canada geese have been studied by placing leg bands and collars that hunters turn in once they have killed the bird. But the 100,000 Western tundra swans—70,000 of which pass through the Great Salt Lake—never have been banded. Radio collars have the added advantage of telling where a swan goes between the beginning and end of its journey.

"This stuff (Shadow-a-Swan data) really is providing some useful information you won't get out of a neck collar or leg band," Aldrich said.

(C) 2001 The Idaho Statesman