People in northern B.C. have been flocking to Vanderhoof, B.C., to witness the bi-annual swan migration, as they stopover on their journey north to the Arctic for the summer. 

Thousands of trumpeter and tundra swans have been spending their days at Riverside Park, drawing birders, photographers and nature enthusiasts to the banks of the Nechako River. 

Large numbers of swans gather at the park each year from March to early April during their bi-annual migration in the spring and then again in the fall.  

“I think this year has been phenomenal,” said Terrill Bodner, a Prince George-based photographer who has been visiting the swans in Vanderhoof for more than a decade.   

“There seems to be a huge amount more than I’ve ever seen.” 

The area is a critical resting place for the birds as the Nechako River Migratory Bird Sanctuary and surrounding farm fields provide the swans a safe place to rest and forage before they continue on their journey.  

The sanctuary was established in 1944 and is a federally designated protected area for migratory bird species. 

“These birds need to refuel on their way north and this is the best place for them to be,” said Vanderhoof resident Paul Collard. “In fact, this is probably the best place in North America, certainly in B.C., to see birds on a migration.” 

Collard estimates about 5,000 or more birds will gather in the park each day during the migration period.

Back from near extinction

But the swan population in the area hasn’t always been so healthy.  

Trumpeter swans were once listed as an endangered species. In the 1930s, fewer than 70 wild birds were known to exist after they were over hunted for their white plumage. 

Gerd Erasmus, a retired biology teacher who has lived in Vanderhoof since 1973, says the swans have made a profound comeback and their numbers keep increasing every year. 

He credits a parcel of land on Lonesome Lake near Bella Coola as being key to the survival of the trumpeter swan, as well as efforts from local trappers and farmers in the Nechako Valley who would feed the swans on the river. 

“It was a very deliberate thing to try to bring them back, and very successful,” he said. 

“This is just something that makes you realize that the world is alive and of glorious place and really, there’s no other place to see them as easily as right here.” 

Vanderhoof Mayor Kevin Moutray says seeing the swans gather each year is something he never takes for granted. 

“It is such a privilege to have this amazing display of nature,” he said. 

Moutray says the visitors from all over northern B.C. come to see the bird migration, but he hopes more people will visit the community to experience the local natural phenomenon. 

“I think there is a huge asset here.” 

Prince George resident Christina Watts is one of those visitors. At the end of March, she planned an overnight stay with some friends and her teenage son just to see the birds. 

“It’s a special experience,” she said. “It’s just really cool to be there with their sounds and their honking and just watching them do their thing.” 

The birds typically spend the early morning hours on the ice and water in and around the park before flying to the farm fields in the afternoon and coming back to the river to rest on the ice at night. 

“Not everybody’s a bird watcher, or a ‘twitcher,’ as they’re known, but this is a sight that everybody’s mom and dad and kids would enjoy seeing,” said Collard.