Subject: [Tweeters] Whooper Swan near Conway, WA
Date: Jan 6 17:24:19 2007
From: Alan J. Knue - bluejay at surfbirder.com


Hello All,

Since we were both out of town for the holidays, Alan Grenon and I spent
the morning hoping to find the Whooper Swan. We found many swans south
of Snohomish but no Whooper, so we decided to try the spot near Conway
mentioned by Tom Aversa on the BirdBox. We were very hopeful when we
found a fairly large group of swans near the intersection of Milltown
Road and Old Pioneer Highway, but alas no Whooper. We then went a little
further north onto Fir Island to scope the swans there before heading
south back towards Snohomish- again no Whooper, although several
Trumpeters with lots of suspicious looking mud patches gave us pause.
Around 11:30 we found a small group of Trumpeters on the Old Pioneer
Highway just north of the intersection with Swanson Lane (just south of
Milltown Road) and right in the middle of this group was the Whooper
Swan. We (plus Eric Huston) watched the swan for about an hour and had a
very nice fairly close view. The swan is slightly smaller than a
Trumpeter with a similar long slopping bill. The bill has a large yellow
patch extending on each side of the bill to form a point below the
nostrils. Also noted was the broad yellow stripe on the underside of the
lower mandible. The hallux was present on both feet as well.

We returned to Snohomish to look for the Emperor Geese which we had
missed earlier in the day- we also missed it in the afternoon. We tried
other fields nearby as well, including those in the vicinity of the
"Gyrfalcon" tree.

Other birds of note- at least 5 American Kestrels were seen in our
travels plus 3 Peregrine Falcons and one Merlin. Glad the weather stayed
reasonable for most of the day!

Good Birding, Alan

--
Alan J. Knue
bluejay at surfbirder.com

Seattle, WA, USA