Subject: Re: Olympic Peninsula Swans
Date: Dec 5 09:46:23 1996
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at mail.ups.edu
>On Wed, 4 Dec 1996 Bob Norton wrote:
>
>> Finally, it is my impression that in SW WA the majority of swans (90%)
>> are TuSw and in the Vancouver, BC area the proportion is reversed. I am sure
>> someone can be more definite on that subject.
>
>Perhaps Bob meant to say that "in *NW* WA the majority of swans (90%) are
>TuSw...". I believe this is the case for the Skagit Valley (maybe not quite
>as high as 90% but pretty high). In *SW* WA I am most familiar with the
>regular occurrence of swans on the lakes of the Long Beach Peninsula on the
>west side of Willapa Bay and I have always understood them to be TrSw. Swans
>also frequent flooded pastures close to Interstate 5, mostly in the Chehalis
>River bottom and I believe that TrSw are in the majority here as well.
Perhaps "SW" was used to refer to the area down around the Columbia River,
where there are a lot more Tundras than Trumpeters. Ridgefield Refuge and
various other parts of the Columbia bottoms, all the way east to Skamania
Co., support large flocks of Tundras in winter--several thousand, perhaps.
And I don't think the proportion of Tundras in the Skagit/Whatcom area is
anywhere near 90%; there are many hundreds of both species.
Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
web site: http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html