Thanks for reporting the banded trumpeters. I will forward this information to Darlene Kilpatrick, who is responsible for monitoring the birds' winter movements under Lauri Hanauska-Brown of the Idaho Dept. of Fish and Game. Darlene's contact info is:
E-mail: darluvbug@yahoo.com
Phone: 208.390.7990
By the way, I recently learned that not all banded swans are trumpeters. I saw a tundra swan sporting a black collar several weeks ago. I have since learned that various agencies study trumpeter, tundra, and mute swan movements, and that each specie has neck collars of specific colors. More information can be found at
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/homepage/swan.htm
Trumpeters swans are given green, red or yellow collars with 3 character combinations with one letter. Tundra swans sport gray, black or blue collars with either 4 character combinations with the letter first (LNNN) - or - 3 character combinations with two letters (LLN, LNL, NLL). Mute swans will have white collars only with 4 character combinations with 2 letters first (LLNN).
Thanks again,
Lu Giddings
cllslp@msn.com wrote:
_______________________________________________ "Utah Birds" web site: http://www.utahbirds.org BirdTalk: To subscribe, e-mail: birdtalk-subscribe@utahbirds.org To unsubscribe, e-mail: birdtalk-unsubscribe@utahbirds.org To send a message, e-mail: birdtalk@utahbirds.org _________________________________________________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 ScoterPacific LoonRed Throated LoonGreen-winged TealBarn OwlDouble-crested Cormorantand 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.orgPeace,Stephen Peterson