Greetings tweets (from Gene Hunn ENHunn at aol.com)

Never having seen a Whooper Swan, I decided to run down to Orting yesterday
evening to check it out. It was there, at 7 PM, on the High Cedars golf club
(turn right off SR 162 onto 149th St. Ct. E just north of Orting, about 5
miles south of 410), right where Michael left it, grazing with a few Canada
Geese and some mixed domestics. It was alert but quite tame, dipping in th
pond for a swim and drifting over to our side to check us out. No bands and
apparently wings not clipped. If it did get here under its own power, it
could be one of those Wayne Weber reported last fall, now heading back north.
There was one seen briefly last spring (I don't recall the dates) in the
Willamette Valley.

In any case, it is a beautiful adult Whooper, a bit smaller I would judge
than a Trumpeter, with a deep, straight "nose" 2/3 butter yellow, which
angles forward to cup the nostril above and below. The black of the bill tip
extends along the culmen ridge to a squared-off area 2/3 of the way back
(here a picture would be worth 1000 words). Just as illustrated in Waterfowl:
An Identification Guide to the Ducks, Geese and Swans of the World by Steve
Madge and Hilary Burn, pg. 156. The yellow of the bill is highlighted by a
long black grin that curls up slightly ("ironically"?) at the base of the
mandible. The underside of the bill is also mostly yellow, in a central "U,"
outlined in black, which you can see as it dips its bill or raises it to
drink. It called softly several times. A "whoop" or double "whoop," higher
pitched than a Trumpeter. An elegant bird.

Gene