[TN-Bird] Mute Swans in Weakley Co.

12/31/04
Garrett Lake
Weakley Co.

After a good tip from David Pitts that there were some Swans present 
(probably Mute's) on Garrett Lake in Weakley Co, I got a little time this 
afternoon to run over and check it out. When David was there yesterday 
morning most of the lake was still frozen over, and the birds were distant.

As I arrived, I saw a couple of Swans on lake, and sure enough they were 
Mute's. Initially I only saw 3 birds, but most of the lake was hidden from 
my vantage point. There are only two access points on Garrett Lake (a fair 
size lake, over mile and half north to south), but from the one on the west 
side of the lake you can see most of the water. A quick trip around the lake 
revealed a total of 8 Mute Swans present. Six were remaining together, and 2 
more were feeding separately. The group of 6 consists of 2 adults and what I 
think are 4, 1st-winter birds. Two of the birds are still dingy with darkish 
bills, obviously this-years hatch. The other two are basically white, with 
fairly bright pink bills that lack the knob of the adults. The 2 separate 
birds were too far to be certain, but appeared to be adults. I had great 
looks at the group of 6 as they cruised by the launch area while transiting 
the lake.

A real treat was having one of the birds fly from one end of the lake to 
other. I was looking through the scope when I started hearing what almost 
sounded like a helicopter spooling up 
(whoomp.....whooomp......whooomp......whoooomp), I looked up to see one of 
the birds coming from the other end of the lake. The sound of those 
wingbeats was most impressive. This was my 1st time to see a Mute Swan in 
the air.

I have only had one other Mute in the state that I was confident was wild, 
many years ago at Cross Creeks NWR. This was also during very bad winter 
weather. I've seen other Mute's that very well could have been wild birds. I 
talked to a couple of people that fish Lake Garrett regularly, that said the 
birds weren't there a couple of weeks ago. They seem to have come in with 
the bitter weather of late.

I've posted a few shots of these birds on my site, if interested just follow 
the link and click on "next" to go to the next photo, a total of 4 shots are 
posted.
http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/38107295

Good birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
Carroll Co.
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd




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