I also saw this swan on Skagit City Road more or less behind the church
on Saturday (Jan 20). There was one thing that troubled me about the ID
and I was reminded by a comment in Kathy's email from yesterday.
Because I had not really planned on looking for the Whooper Swan (I was
on my way home from Semiahmoo) I had not studied the reference books in
advance. Consequently I failed to make note of the yellow patch coming
to a point in the front of the bill. I had drawn a quick sketch but I
had not really focused on whether the shape of the patch was very
accurate. For whatever reason my sketch does NOT show a point. Kathy
commented that the yellow patch was "oval-edged". Now likely I am just
misunderstanding Kathy's meaning as she does refer to the "under side of
the bill" rather than the side of the bill. I did also note that part
of the underside of the bill is pale in a sort of tongue shape. This
underside patch did not seem yellow to me but more of a tan unlike the
bright yellow patches on the sides of the bill. In fact I wondered
whether it might be dried mud but later I found a photograph in a
Japanese guide that shows this patch. I am wondering if anyone has
gotten a photo of the swan in this location where it has been at very
close range. Incidentally while I was there the swan took flight and
flew several times around the field before alighting. While it was
flying it was calling. The call was fairly similar to the honk of a
Canada goose and matched well with recordings I have heard of Whooper
Swans. It was nothing like any Bewick's Swan recording I could find but
they seem to have quite a variety of calls.


Nearby on Dry Slough Road there were a gazillion Snow Geese including
one (at least) immature blue phase bird. I can't remember ever seeing a
Blue Goose in Washington before. The field the geese were in was
between 500 and 1000 feet square based on my odometer and also on
satellite photos from Google Maps. It seemed to be more less uniformly
filled with a crowd of geese. If the average separation between geese
was five feet giving each goose 25 square feet (and they seemed much
denser than that) that would be at LEAST 10,000 geese.

Jim Elder

Seattle, WA

-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:tweeters- Sent:
Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:00 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Tweeters Digest, Vol 29, Issue 24

From: Kathy Andrich <chukarbird at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] Whooper Swan 1-22-07, YES
To: tweet <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <535390.10012.qm at web52903.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hi Tweeters,

Well it took two visiting Floridian birders and one
native Skagitonian to get me to the Whooper Swan.

The swan was virtually in the exact same place Barry
Levine posted about yesterday but I missed it my first
go around. About 1 mile west of I-5 from exit 221 on
Fir Island Road is a big stand alone white church on
the right hand side of the road. I put my scope up on
the little basketball court and got as good a looks at
a rarity as any birder could ask for.
At first the swan was sleeping and it would only poke
its head out now and then. A fellow swan wandered
over to the Whoopers group and woke them all up. The
Whooper took two drinks of water after awakening and I
got to see the big yellow patch on the under side of
the bill. It is oval edged and extends about 1/3+
toward the tip of the bill. I really wanted to get
better looks than I did three weeks ago so I was glad
I went.


Kathy
Roosting in S King County