Hi Deanna (& All),
Thanks for the report! I went by that location at around 11:30 AM and
turned around just past the creek crossing north of Maple Grove Rd. No
swans there at that time so they must have shifted to another location
not long after you saw them.
However I did hear from Cody Smith that Jordan Hazen also saw Trumpeter
Swans somewhere around Airlie today.
So far as I know, this is a record late date for Trumpeter Swans in the
Suver-Airlie-Maple Grove area of southern Polk County, though I think
there have been later reports from Sauvie Island.
Normal departure dates for this flock, going back to 1998 when I started
to keep track of them, were usually close to Feb 28th. My operating
theory for many years has been that Rufous Hummingbirds chase them out
(just like mice chase elephants around ;-), but I might have to let go
of that theory based on this year's data.
The other interesting thing this year is that numbers seem to be tailing
off gradually. The pattern from past years/decades was that numbers
would build gradually in February as family groups coalesced into a
single flock, then all of them would leave the area, pretty much all at
once.
That late-February coalescence never happened this year. Consistently,
I've been seeing them in smaller groups of 10 to 19 or 20 birds, with
separate flocks using three separate locations consistently, through
most of February. So there seems to have been a shift in the flock
dynamics, this winter. Maybe an "extended-family feud"?
Roy Gerig started monitoring the southern Polk Co. trumpeter flock even
before I cottoned onto them (if I remember right, Roy was teaching
biology in the high school in Dallas back then), so would be good to get
Roy's comments on this.
Happy birding,
Joel
On Fri, 2016-03-11 at 18:27 -0800, Deanna Emig wrote:
There were 12 Trumpeter Swans this morning at 10:40 in a field just
north of Maple Grove rd. They could be seen off Airlie, Maple Grove,
and Priem roads. There were a bunch of Canada/Cackling geese in the
field as well (5 different subspecies). Last Monday, the 29th of Feb,
there were 19 Trumpeters in the same field.
Deanna Emig
Albany
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2016 13:51:53 -0800
From: Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: [birding] Airlie-area Trumpeter Swans gone, pond views may
follow
To: MidValley Birds <birding@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Oregon Birders OnLine <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID: <1457733113.2506.180.camel@clearwater-hp>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Hi all,
After a rainy-day visit to Luckiamute State Natural Area (where camas
is
now coming up in abundance though still far from blooming), I looped
back home by way of Suver/Airlie Rd. as far as Maple Grove (southern
Polk County).
I saw ZERO (0) SWANS along this route. Not a big surprise since
Trumpeter Swan flocks normally leave this area around the end of
February, but I wanted to confirm that ... plus I was curious to see
if
there might still be a few Tundra Swans around.
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
