Hi Scott,
Did you have any luck tracking down the newspaper photo of the possible whooper swan?. Was it in the Everett Herald? Maybe we can get a look at the original photograph. By the way, since I live on Seattle Hill, above the Snohomish Valley, I frequently travel along the Marsh Road and Lowell-Larimer Road and regularly see swans at a distance. These roads are narrow and well traveled so its hard to find a convenient place to park and scope, so I haven't made it a practice to confirm identity every time I pass by. Also swans are predictable further up the valley. One spot in particular is about 3/4 mile East of Snohomish on the old Sno-Mo Rd. I looked carefully at that flock earlier this week and while at first glance I thought I saw both trumpeters and tundras, closer inspection showed no trumpeters, just tundras. These two species are a lot more difficult to separate (for me, at least) than many people think. I truly believe that trumpeter reports are overestimated and tundras are often reported as trumpeters if the observer fails to see any yellow on the beak. As you well know, mud can hide the yellow quite completely. Some of the other features (facial feathering pattern, placement of eye, pink at the base of the mandible, crooked neck, etc.) are subtle or inconsistent.. On the other hand I doubt that many trumpeters are erroneously reported as tundras. Anyway, there has been a pretty regular occurrence of swans in the valley and it warrants closer scrutiny of the flocks. Maybe the bird in the photo is a whooper, and if so, there's a good likelihood that its still around.

Greg

Greg Toffic
Curator of Birds
Woodland Park Zoo
5500 Phinney Avenue N.
Seattle, WA 98103
(206)684-4836 PH
(206)233-7278 FAX