Waterfowl Question

[Backbone Ranch]

For as long as I can remember, we have normally had anywhere from half a dozen to fifty ducks on our ponds at any one time during the winter months. I grew up listening to my grandmother tell of when she would see ducks by the hundreds on our stock ponds. The numbers would vary from year to year, but they were usually mallards, teal, and wood ducks. We would rarely ever see any geese, and when we did it was only ever a couple pairs of Canada geese. However, I saw some birds last week that I had never seen anywhere near our place before. We had a pair of snow geese, and what I believe is a swan, show up last week. I have never seen a swan before or heard of them being in our neck of the woods.

Any idea what kind of swan this is?

 

[Caustic Burno]

Trumpeter Swan very rare for Texas.
Pair showed up at High Island caused a stir. Looks to be from picture.
I could be wrong but we have three varieties from my duck hunting days.
Trumpeters have black bills Tundra are yellow and black and Mute orange.

Edit unless the law has changed they have been illegal for 70-80 years to hunt.

 

[bird dog]

I lease my place to a duck hunting outfit and they have not had a very good year. Numbers are way down. They blame it on not having enough cold weather in the North county to push down the large numbers. We have ducks, just not the large concentrations of them that we have had in years past.

I have seen some large groups of Geese almost every evening for the last two weeks about 30 minutes before dark. They are coming off the Rye grass fields in the area and I guess they are looking for somewhere to spend the night. I have never seen a swan on my place.

 

[slick4591]

Hard for me to pass any body of water and not see at least a few ducks. I think the geese have already gone thru here as we saw lots of them in November feeding in the fields.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I lease my place to a duck hunting outfit and they have not had a very good year. Numbers are way down. They blame it on not having enough cold weather in the North county to push down the large numbers. We have ducks, just not the large concentrations of them that we have had in years past.

I have seen some large groups of Geese almost every evening for the last two weeks about 30 minutes before dark. They are coming off the Rye grass fields in the area and I guess they are looking for somewhere to spend the night. I have never seen a swan on my place.

I never saw a wild Trumpeter.
Back in the 60's and 70's occasionally we would see the Tundra swans on upper Trinity bay.
That is not far from Anuhuac National Refuge that still get occasional sittings.

 

[ez14.]

For as long as I can remember, we have normally had anywhere from half a dozen to fifty ducks on our ponds at any one time during the winter months. I grew up listening to my grandmother tell of when she would see ducks by the hundreds on our stock ponds. The numbers would vary from year to year, but they were usually mallards, teal, and wood ducks. We would rarely ever see any geese, and when we did it was only ever a couple pairs of Canada geese. However, I saw some birds last week that I had never seen anywhere near our place before. We had a pair of snow geese, and what I believe is a swan, show up last week. I have never seen a swan before or heard of them being in our neck of the woods.

Any idea what kind of swan this is?

never seen a swan before? I guess they're a lot more popular around here!

Though I can't say I've ever seen one with a black bill like that

 

[Caustic Burno]

You probably have Mute swans they were imported and are very prolific. There is no season on them like Eurasian Doves they are considered invasive. They have orange bills.

 

[ez14.]

You probably have Mute swans they were imported and are very prolific. There is no season on them like Eurasian Doves they are considered invasive. They have orange bills.

You're probably right as I know they are invasive and have an orange bill (And are hard to kill with a blowgun)

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Thank you all for your comments. I thought that it may have been a trumpeter, but I was not certain. The swan took off about a week ago and has not been back since. It was really neat to see while it was here.

 

[greybeard]

I've had a few muted swans on my pond over the years, 2 or 3 at the most any given year. They don't stay long. I wouldn't mind having some full time to eat some of the vegetation out of the pond, but they wouldn't stay. Gets too hot in late spring and they would leave.

The migration back North of the Monarch butterflies should be pretty big. Heard a news story said the count in Mexico is finished and it's 150% over last year and the biggest #s in a decade.

 

[Dave]

Back over on the Washington coast there were lots of swans. It wasn't unusual to see 30-40 of them together.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Trumpeter swan numbers are increasing in Minnesota. We have a few pairs nesting around us recently. They concentrate on the Mississippi in late fall, and will stay as long as there are open corn fields. They come back here in early April.

Tundra swans migrate thru Dakotas. They are hunted based on drawing for a permit. Hard to kill w/ steel due to poor shot penetration of a bird that size. Taste like liver...

 

[HDRider]

Worst duck season on record here

 

[bird dog]

We've had more ducks this week than we have had all year. Of course the season ended last weekend. You think they know?

 

[greybeard]

We've had more ducks this week than we have had all year. Of course the season ended last weekend. You think they know?

They can read that Tx Parks and Wildlife booklet same as you & I can. They learned to read from the Whitetails.

Some years, I rarely see a duck....other years, the pond is black black black with ducks.

 

[Dave]

One of my neighbors is feeding some sort of grain hay (oats, triticale?). There is about 150 Mallards that started cleaning grain off the ground behind the cows. After a couple weeks they are now right in with the cows. They don't fly when the tractor comes. They just step out of the way like the cows. Then right back in eating away. They do stay in a pretty tight bunch.