Sorry for the late post but I wanted to finish processing the photos and to
get some fresh eyes on them. Yesterday around noon I was able to get back
to try for the Trumpeter Swan at Nyack Beach State Park (after dipping last
week). This time it was easily located, feeding about 20-30 feet of
directly off the State beach and parking area seawall. The light was decent
that day and I was able to get a number of clear photos. I have posted three
shots to my Flickr site (see link below). One of the photos shows what
appears to be damage to the base of the right wing (not the kind of damage
associated with wing clipping). I also noticed that on the occasions when
the associated geese would take off and fly, the swan up raise up and start
flapping, but would then settle back down. I never saw it fly.
I stupidly forgot to try to get shots of the legs to look for bands. This
would have been easy to do when the bird was actively feeding. I did,
inadvertently, obtain two suboptimal shots while it was feeding. These
clearly show no evidence of a band on the right leg. One photo does show a
hint of a light area that could be a band on the left leg, but I can't rule
out that this is just the feathering on the leg. Anyone going to see this
bird might try to get a clear shot of the left leg/foot.
Alan Wells
By the way, if you go, the Beach parking lot is not open and there is no
legal street parking in the immediate vicinity. I had my wife stay with the
car.
See the last three photos in the "Swans" album:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/awells48/albums/72157639248455094
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