Power boat cruises through Yukon's 'Swan Haven'

Yukon's "Swan Haven" wasn't much of one this weekend, according to a nearby resident who saw the birds scared offtwiceby a power boat.

"It seemed like the person was just kind of cruising around in the bay," said Peter Heebink, who watched it happenfrom his lakeside property on Saturday and again on Sunday.

Hundreds, even thousands, of trumpeter swans gather each April in the shallow water of M'Clintock Bay on Yukon's Marsh Lake. They typically spend a couple of weeks resting and feeding before continuing their spring migration to northern Yukon and Alaska.

• Trumpeter swans make early return to Yukon
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This year, the swans have arrived about two weeks earlier than usual, and in greater numbers.By Saturday, there were nearly2,000 trumpeter swans counted at Swan Haven.

Then the boat came up riverand into the bay.

"All of a sudden, you hear the sound of the wingbeats, and all 2,000 of them got up and moved out to the point there, well above the river," Heebink said. "They're very sensitive to anything in the water."

Heebinksaid the birds eventually made their way back to the bay, but when the boat returned on Sunday some of the birds had apparently had enough.

"This time we noticed that 300 or 400got up and went north, which is a bad sign. Because twodays in a row of being disrupted, they move further northwho knowsto the next open body of water," he said.

"They spend maybe twoto threeweeks staging here and feeding, and that is very critical. So something should be done about it."

It's not clear what might be done, but Heebinksuggests signageaimed at boaters entering the bay fromthe LewesRiver, or even pressing charges against the boat owner.

According to Yukon's Wildlife Act, it is considered an offence to operate"a vehicle or a boat in a manner that might reasonably be expected to harass wildlife."

Yukon's Environment department has not yet responded to CBC's requests for comment, nor has the government-run Swan Haven Interpretive Centre yetposted its daily swan count for Sundayor Monday.