Hello,
As many of you are aware, swans are returning to the valley areas of
western Washington. Some of them are wearing red collars. Reports of
collars are coming in from several places outside of Whatcom and Skagit
county. We are particularly interested in knowing the code off these
collars as they are the birds banded in Whatcom County the past 2 winters as
part of the lead shot ingestion poisoning study. One has been reported near
Elma/Chehalis Valley and another in the upper Snohomish River Valley along
the Lowell-Larimer Road. If you are out and about and can read these
collars - or any others you find, please send them directly to me.
Note the time, date, location as precise as possible and if they were
other swans (about how many).
Thanks.
The codes are 3 digit: number letter number or letter number number
Letter will be an F or an M on the red collars, Yellow collars are M Read
from body to head.
A green collar will have a different set of code. On these, always read the
large, single letter/number first, then the vertical code from body to head.

Thanks.
Martha Jordan
www.swansociety.org