Larch Creek Birds

What the birds (and frogs) are saying at a creek in western Washington
Plate 27
Trumpeter Swan
John James Audubon, betw
Bird

Trumpeter Swan

Cygnus buccinator
Ducks, Geese, and Waterfowl (Anatidae)
In for the season
Winter visitor. Expected here roughly Aug to Jun. In for the season: expectation was 72% a month ago, 90% now.
Field marks
An enormous all-white swan with a straight black bill and no yellow at its base; swims with the neck straight and kinked at the bottom, like a question mark that has given up.
Male & female
Alike; the male (the cob) is larger.
Voice
A deep, resonant, trumpet-like honk, lower than the Tundra Swan's high whoop. A flock overhead sounds like a brass section tuning up in another building.
Diet
Aquatic plants and tubers, and grain in winter fields.
Habitat
Breeds in Alaska and Canada; winters in the Skagit and other river valleys of western Washington.
Nesting
A mound of vegetation at a lake edge, 6 ft across; 4–6 eggs.
Size
Wingspan 7–8 ft, up to 28 lb: wider than your car and the weight of a three-year-old, airborne. North America's heaviest flying bird, which it manages by being mostly neck.

Arrives in October–November from the north and stays until March, so calls overhead now are flocks coming in for the winter. In the 1930s fewer than 70 were known in the lower 48; there are now tens of thousands, one of conservation's quieter triumphs.

Season how expected it is here, week by week

50%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecheard at the creektoday
Fig. 1. BirdNET's range model for this location: the chance this species is present in each week of the year. Orange ticks mark weeks it has actually been heard at the creek; the dashed line is today.

At the creek 13 calls on 2 days, first Oct 29, last Oct 31

2400:00 — 0 calls001:00 — 0 calls02:00 — 0 calls03:00 — 0 calls304:00 — 1 calls05:00 — 0 calls06:00 — 0 calls607:00 — 0 calls08:00 — 0 calls09:00 — 1 calls910:00 — 2 calls11:00 — 4 calls12:00 — 0 calls1213:00 — 1 calls14:00 — 0 calls15:00 — 0 calls1516:00 — 1 calls17:00 — 1 calls18:00 — 0 calls1819:00 — 1 calls20:00 — 0 calls21:00 — 1 calls2122:00 — 0 calls23:00 — 0 callssunrisesunset
Fig. 2. When it calls: all detections by hour of day (today's sunrise and sunset shown).
510Oct 2 — 0 callsOct 3 — 0 callsOct 3Oct 4 — 0 callsOct 5 — 0 callsOct 6 — 0 callsOct 7 — 0 callsOct 8 — 0 callsOct 9 — 0 callsOct 10 — 0 callsOct 10Oct 11 — 0 callsOct 12 — 0 callsOct 13 — 0 callsOct 14 — 0 callsOct 15 — 0 callsOct 16 — 0 callsOct 17 — 0 callsOct 17Oct 18 — 0 callsOct 19 — 0 callsOct 20 — 0 callsOct 21 — 0 callsOct 22 — 0 callsOct 23 — 0 callsOct 24 — 0 callsOct 24Oct 25 — 0 callsOct 26 — 0 callsOct 27 — 0 callsOct 28 — 0 callsOct 29 — 3 callsOct 30 — 0 callsOct 31 — 10 callsOct 31
Fig. 3. Calls per day over the last 30 days.

Recordings

Clearest recording · Oct 31 10:41 am · 94% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 31 4:31 pm · 88% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 31 1:45 pm · 87% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 31 11:26 am · 88% sure
spectrogram

From the encyclopedia

The trumpeter swan, or simply the trumpeter, is a species of swan found in North America. The heaviest living bird native to North America, it is also the largest extant species of waterfowl, with a wingspan of 185 to 304.8 cm. It is the American counterpart and a close relative of the whooper swan of Eurasia and has even been considered the same species by some authorities. By 1933, fewer than 70 wild individuals were known to exist; extinction seemed imminent until aerial surveys discovered a Pacific population of several thousand trumpeter swans around Alaska's Copper River. Careful reintroductions by wildlife agencies and the Trumpeter Swan Society gradually restored the North American wild population to over 46,000 birds by 2010.
From Wikipedia, "Trumpeter swan", CC BY-SA 4.0.