Hi Tweeters

re: stained Trumpeter Swans (TRUS) and unstained Tundra Swans (TUSW).

Coincidentally, a local observer in Vancouver BC, Brian Self, queried about
the same thing. He said he noted last weekend that all the circa 600 TRUS
he saw in the fields of Ladner and Delta were stained, the 40-odd TUSW
unsullied, and could that be used as a fieldmark? In my most authoritative
tone I said I didn't know offhand but I'd do some research on it and get
back to him. Then came Dennis' post about it. Phew.

Dennis also had a query about a possible analog between unstained Tundra
Swans and Trumpeter Swans and unstained Ross' Goose (ROGO) and stained Snow
Goose (SNGO).

Our experience in Vancouver BC in the last few years with three separate
ROGO's at the Reifel Refuge is that they maintained clean plumage where the
SNGO's were mostly stained. Daily, the ROGO's all stayed put in fields,
usually with some Canada Geese, while the several thousand SNGO's that had
been feeding there picked up and went out the foreshore to feed on other
stuff or party or whatever it was they did outside the Refuge besides
dodging shotgun pellets.

In a similar process to the iron-staining of feathers is the staining of
pages in old books, resulting in spots of similar color wherever an
iron-crystal in the page oxidised (the iron being in solution in the water
used in the pulping process, I'd hazard). The term used to describe this
spotting is 'foxing', from the color.

Just goes to show from what little acorns our terminology grows: if the
bibliophile who originated the term had been a bird enthusiast, rather than
riding to hounds, the process would likely have been called 'goosing'.

Dodged one there, alright.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
michael_price at mindlink.bc.ca