Whooper Swan

[Charlotte Ann Kisling]

Hi all,
Today, I checked out the swans at White Lake and the very first swan
I scoped appeared to have a lot of yellow on the bill. Since it was
obviously smaller than the swan to its right, I figured that perhaps it
was a Bewick's form of Tundra Swan. It was noticeably larger than the
two swans to its immediate left, but not nearly as large as the
black-billed one to the right, that swan looked immense. Since it was
far out there, I had some difficulty determining how much yellow was on
the bill. I watched it for a couple on minutes before it gave me my only
decent view of it and it looked as if the bill was at least 60%, or
more, yellow. It certainly was a Whooper Swan. Seeing how the swan to
its right was even larger, I had to conclude that the other swan was a
Trumpeter Swan even though it was so far out that making out the finer
points of identification would have been impossible given the
combination of optics and distance. When I returned a bit later, the
number of swans in that area were only about half as many as before.
There were lots of other swans at White Lake, but none of them showed
any hint of having extensive yellow in their bills. The Whooper and
Trumpeter were both seen on the south side of State Line Road at about
the 14 mile post. An adult Northern Shrike was seen about a hundred
yards up the road from Intersection F about halfway to where it makes a
right turn toward the exit. It was in the last willow from the parking
area. I saw the two Barn Swallows that Dave Menke mentioned, but by the
time I got out of my vehicle, they were far enough away that I could
only make them out as swallows and not to species. I did drive the
gravel portion of Cheyne Road and ran my streak of seeing at least one
Golden Eagle there to 22 times straight. Winter Wings is almost upon us,
please share you sightings so they may be of use during that time.
Charlotte Ann