[obol] Re: History of Tundra Swans in the Willamette Valley
- From: Bigrocketman@xxxxxxxxxxx
- To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:08:41 +0000 (UTC)
Here's my own personal wintertime sighting history of Tundra Swans in the
Willamette Valley, up until 1990:
First sighting was a pair flying SE of Harrisburg in Oct., 1954.
In Nov., 1962, I saw four at Fern Ridge Reservoir, the first I'd sighted there.
By Nov., 1973, there were at least 1,000 coming in to Fern Ridge after dark and
perhaps more. The poachers had begun to form a gauntlet out to the North, of
large-bore shotguns that could reach up twice the range of normal 12-gauge
guns. I don't think they got very many, shooting in the dark, but they may have
put some lead pellets into them that weren't immediately lethal. I read a
report from the USF&W Service about 35 years ago, where hundreds of them were
trapped at the Klamath Refuge. One-hundred percent of them had lead pellets
embedded in their breasts. Their ages correlated almost exactly with the number
of pellets they carried.
In December, 1990, I counted 1,300 coming in to Fern Ridge at night. On that
occasion, I heard the voice of one Trumpeter Swan and saw its large and shadowy
silhouette on the video I shot, flying with four Tundra Swans.
Steve McDonald
http://www.ipernity.com/home/305883
http://flickr.com/photos/22121562@N00/
http://www.vimeo.com/user458315/videos
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=229807ce52dd4fe0
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