I braved the cold this morning to meet up at
Juanita Bay Park with Travis Keay who is a fellow
student in the Audubon Masterbirder Class . The
objective of course was to see the Bewick's form
of the Tundra Swan per Ryan Merrill's post last
night. We met up with Brian Bell and saw large
white birds in the heavy mist and in the distance
from the Park. To get a better look (almost any
look would have been better) we went over to the
boardwalk at Juanita Beach. The heavy mist
remained for quite a while but we were able to
clearly see and identify the Bewick's together
with both Tundra and Trumpeters (seven in all).
Seeing the three together, especially as the mist
dissipated somewhat, was as special as seeing the
Bewick's itself. As the sun finally burned
through, we were treated to a flyby as the Tundra
and Bewick's circle overhead and then landed again
with the others. I was fortunate to capture the
Bewick's in flight in good light with my camera.
Photos can be seen at
https://picasaweb.google.com/103072475474183849815/BewickSSwan?authkey=Gv1sRgCPadz6nesNK6KA#
.

It appeared to us that the Bewick's was closely
paired with one of the Tundra's and that there was
some courtship behavior between the two (head
bobbing). One of the pictures shows the two
together with the strikingly different yellow on
the bills.

Thanks Ryan.

--
Blair Bernson
Edmonds