Hey tweets, I was one of the birders who saw the Whooper yesterday in the
field north of Milltown. It was not easy to spot, though once spotted, it
was easy to see. Gah? Yes, I did just write that and yes, it's exactly the
case. I had pulled off halfway along the said field, parked partly on a
wooden bridge. In freezing conditions, I looked at the bill of every
blessed swan in that field. The longer I looked, the stupider the Whooper
grew, as in, "What am I doing out here when I've got the flu, stupid,
stupid swan." After ascertaining that I had scoped every single swan beak
in the field, I got in my car, drove about 20 yards north to a bigger
pullout, where four birders were glued to their scopes. Yes, the Whooper
was in their sights in the *same field* I had just scanned. Note that no
new swans had flown into the field during my short car ride. One pair of
birders offered to let me look through their scope, but in the course of
lowering it to my height, the swan disappeared. Note that no swans flew in
or out of the field during this time. We looked and looked to no avail.
Eventually the other pair of birders packed up and left, with these
encouraging words, "Don't worry, you'll find it. At least you know it's in
the field." It took another 15 minutes before the Whooper reappeared in my
scope. That was when I realized that I should have studied more physics in
high school. If only I had paid attention to my teacher, I would have
known that certain white birds have the ability to cause light to bend
around them, thus cloaking them from view. I suspect that some of the
birders who were out there for the past couple weeks and who had buzz cuts
were really from DARPA (Defense Department's esoteric science research
group), studying exactly how the swan cloaked. My advice to tweeters who
still want to see this bird: don't give up. The effort to cloak itself
must take a lot of energy in this cold weather, so eventually the Whooper
has got to decloak and eat. That's when you'll get your chance. - Connie,
Seattle

csidles at isomedia.com

> I heard from Rimmer Devries, of Camano, that the Whooper was seen today by
> several people mid-day. It was found in the flock of swans about 2 fields
> north of Milltown Rd., so a very similar location to the last two days.
> I
> searched that flock twice, once around 10:30 and once at about 2:00.
> Rimmer
> said it was keeping its head down most of the time...
>
> == Michael Hobbs
> == Kirkland, WA
> == http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
> == birdmarymoor at verizon.net
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Hobbs" <birdmarymoor at verizon.net>
> To: "Tweeters (E-mail)" <TWEETERS at u.washington.edu>
> Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 4:56 PM
> Subject: [Tweeters] Skagit today
>
>
>> Tweets - I tried unsuccessfully for the Whooper Swan today; there were a
>> few swans near Milltown, but none with yellow beaks, at least that I
>> could
>> find. Several other people tried through the day too, and I didn't hear
>> of
>> anyone who had success. Of course, within a 5-mile radius there are
>> plenty of swans. I found and scoped some, while others were either too
>> far away or were too muddy to check.
>
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