Swan Upping on the Gold Coast

Banding Black Swans on the Gold Coast 

Dec 26 2015

Rainer Ebel, Sanctuary Cove, Qld.

Jon Coleman, Lucy Coleman and I checked numerous residential ponds (aka swan pond study area) from the Robina area north to Coombabah area which  generally lies between the Pacific Highway (M1) and the Gold Coast Highway near the Pacific Ocean (Coral Sea) to the East (See Map). I have repeated this drive with Jon (Principal; his study) and searched his swan ponds/lakes for swans a number of times in the past but frankly, him driving, the streets with its curves and numerous round-a-abouts still confuses and disorients me perhaps due to my inability to escape the influence of the Northern Hemisphere.

As it turned out today (6 hours driving and gawking)  we hand captured a ten swans, ringed, coloured marked (Darvic rings), and measured 7 cygnets and three adults. The technique can be viewed in the two photographs below. It is a bit tricky: grabbing a big bird by the wings or neck and then the body, is at first daunting to say the least.  Once in our possession they are straddled by the ringer and the tarsi are grabbed and held or tied together. At that point a stainless steel standard ABBBS band is placed on the left tarsus while the right receives the white lettering on red, an  individually unique engraved colour band . The combinations used can easily be read in the field by researchers or members of the public, without the need to recapture the bird. This band is the basis upon which detailed life histories and movement patterns of the individuals are built. 
The web, wing, radius bone length,  total head, bill length, bill width  is measured; the bird is weighed and then released. The entire possess takes approximately 4-5 minutes. From the biometrics it is possible to calculate  a body condition index for each individual,  survival rates, recruitment rates to the breeding population, and individual reproductive success.  

Gathering the flock at one of the many residential freshwater (or brackish in some instances)  ponds

Placing the stainless steel ABBBS  band requires brut strength. The Darvics  (red) will be next followed by measurements.  The swan is lying on its ventral side.

It is all about the food- the Bread- that brings them in. If they are conditioned to public feeding then these birds will arrive instantly from nowhere looking (begging?) for their treats. Those birds that stay back have little or no experience with "meals on feet" and appear uninterested or suspicious. We experienced this behaviour from swans on the Pines Golf course in Sanctuary Cove where feeding of swans is not practised.  However, some swans on the golf course ponds were occasionally attracted by our presences and were soon bejewelled.

Black Swans can breed in any month. Some, a small number may continually breed while others, the majority, may leave their freshwater breeding sites to mass with hundreds if not 1000s of other swans on  swallow saltwater bays, estuaries and inlets along the coast of Queensland. I also suspect these large numbered flocks

 may be roosting, feeding or socially iterating with other family groups before dispersing from saltwater regions to  elsewhere in Australia. In the two pictures above note the black dots in the background. The birds near the shore are shorebirds ( I can not recall which species we cannon netted at Toorbul in February 2013.