Bridgerland Audubon Society field trip on Saturday, Nov. 20, 2004 produced 6 Trumpeter Swans at the SouthEast inlet of the reservoir.
2 of them had yellow neck tags, #s 8Y3 and 9Y3 respectively. And both had underparts of wing painted pink.
These 2 birds kept to themselves, in the shallows. The other 4 bunched together and were about 20 feet away. We got great looks at all birds and we concluded that they all were Trumpeters.
The other 4 birds were not tagged or marked in any way.
We observed them from 9:50 am to 10:15 am, watching the 2 tagged swans fly towards the South, circle back around and over the other 4 swans. The other 4 swans then lifted off and joined the 2 tagged swans, flying North over the reservoir and then circling back to land in the same spot where we previously spotted them. We could hear the swans nasal honking as they flew by. Gray-brown plumage was evident, larger bill with black at the base, with faint pink coloring in middle of bill.
I must have deleted the email of the person from Idaho Fish & Game that was asking for any Trumpeter reports. If anyone has that information, please pass that on to me or go ahead and send that person this sighting.
Other birds of interest at Hyrun Reservoir, which has become quite a hot spot this past month:
Surf Scoter
Pacific Loon
Red Throated Loon
Green-winged Teal
Barn Owl
Double-crested Cormorant
and a 1st year juvenile Northern Shrike.
Complete BAS trip list will be posted at a later time and will also be available on Bridgerlands website:
www.bridgerlandaudubon.org
Peace,
Stephen Peterson