Glenn Walbek has been at Chatfield and studying the eleven swans (a group of seven and a group of four). At his closest approach (with good optics) he could see small yellow lores on a few of the adults. This, combined with closer and better looks at the overall bill length and structure leads to the identification of these birds as TUNDRA SWANS and not Trumpeter Swans.
I apologize for my postings calling these birds Trumpeters...the seven birds seen yesterday further out on the lake looked like they had very large bills with straight culmens. Distance being the difference between my view yesterday and Glenn's view this morning. It was suggested that maybe the birds I saw yesterday were indeed Trumpeters and that they moved on and these birds arrived...I doubt that. That just seems like way too many swans moving in and out of a single location when few are being reported elsewhere. Occam's Razor (in summary) states that the simplest explanation tends to be the best/ correct one. Which means I misidentified the swans yesterday. :-( Joey Kellner Littleton, CO -- Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en
