On Wed, 10 Apr 1996, Dale Goble wrote:

> A nice flock of 11 swans were on the Syringa sewage ponds northeast of
> Moscow, Idaho on March 24, 25 and 26, but all the observers could
> agree on was that they were swans. Three callers had them as
> Trumpeters, 2 as Tundras...

I went out and saw the birds and thought they were Trumpeters, and I still
do think that some were Trumpeters. (You may recall my post which begged
for help, it was based on a close study of a few swans from my car.) We
returned to the Syringa ponds and took some photos. My wife was able to
catch a photo of the swans in flight which shows one with a fairly obvious
yellow mark next to the eye. This would lead me to name it a Tundra Swan.
Still, I believe the birds I looked at the first time were Trumpeters. Do
they like to travel together?

The swan pictures can be seen at:

http://www.uidaho.edu/~scott931/projects/alphabet.html

(Click on the "S" and it'll take you down to the "S" birds, scroll to find
Swans, the ones that say "flight" are the Syringa Swans.)

-Pat
Pullman, WA
scott931 at uidaho.edu