On Sunday, 12/5, I was at Ridgefield River "S" unit?in the morning. There were ~300 Tundra Swans, but no Trumpeter Swans.?



Just to check, moments ago I reviewed all the photos taken with a Canon 800mm * 1.4X lens, and all of the swans have the field characteristics of the Tundra -- all have the yellow bill patch, or were juvies.?I couldn't make any I saw?into a Trumpeter. There were a few swans that were sleeping in the?far side of rest lake?that never raised a head and were down in the weeds. There were eight adult Tundra Swans with Blue/white_text throat bands, including paired(keeping close association during observation, but likely male/female bonded pairs from the neck stretching/posturing behavior exhibited) T654&T655, T641&T642, T524(& with an untagged Tundra), ? P852&P849 ? plus one more sleeping with tag xx66 obscured by wing(that couldn't be made out further).? Those Txxx tags were?applied in the south part of the Alaska Peninsula, and those two Pxxx tags were from the northern peninsula. We'll see what reports come back from reporting these bands.



For information on reporting color banded tundra swans:? <<They have blue bands with white lettering>>

http://www.ky.ducks.org/media/California/CA%20Content/_documents/SWANALERT2009[2].pdf

http://trumpeterswansociety.wordpress.com/



For information on reporting color banded trumpeter swans: <<various colors, depending upon banding location>>

http://trumpeterswansociety.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/reporting-marked-or-banded-trumpeter-swans/

? ?

Best regards

Don Nelson