Subject: Thurston and Pierce County Swans
Date: Dec 30 22:35:39 2000
From: Kelly Mcallister - mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov


Tweets,

There's a Tundra Swan hanging out in a ditch in the Evergreen Valley of Thurston County, Washington.
It has some missing feathers on the lower neck, suggesting a possible injury. However, I watched
it fly around the valley and feed so it may be fine. Looks lonesome to me. (also a Eurasian Wigeon
with a flock of 265 American Wigeon in a pond/pasture nearby).

Every 5 years, the annual midwinter waterfowl surveys include a swan emphasis and this is the year
for another one. In my district, Pierce and Thurston Counties, swans are so few as to be fairly
meaningless at the scale of the Pacific Flyway. However, I am very much interested in finding swans
next week. I haven't seen many this winter. I picked up a dead juvenile near I-5 in Chehalis a month
or so ago but the family group it was with has moved on. I know there is a Trumpeter Swan on Silver
Lake in Pierce County (or at least it has been there reliably in the past) and I have seen others
in nearby Cranberry Lake but I can't think of other Pierce County areas with a likelihood of swans.
Lawrence Lake in Thurston County often has a small flock.

If anyone has any tips on swans in my district, I would be pleased to hear about them.

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Olympia Washington
mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov

P.S. At the pond with all of the wigeons, I watched a Belted Kingfisher on a telephone pole bashing
a 6 or 8 inch long Goldfish until it was mushy enough to swallow. I don't know how she got it
down.