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A Trumpeter swan paid a visit to Agawam Lake recently. DANA SHAW
A trumpeter swan was spotted over the winter holidays near Lake Agawam in Southampton Village. A tag on the bird indicated that it was a female hatched in 2009 that had been caught and banded northwest of the Lake Ontario shoreline on October 7, 2009, according to Harry Lumsden of the Ontario Trumpeter Swan Restoration Program, in an e-mail message. Angus Wilson, an associate professor of microbiology at New York University and a local birdwatcher and blogger, wrote in an e-mail that birds with tags of this type often move into western and central New York in winter, with some staying to nest, although this might be the first sighting of a marked bird on Long Island. “I would imagine the milder marine climate and less extensive snow cover of Long Island might offer an attractive and reliable wintering ground for these long-lived birds,” he wrote. Two unbanded trumpeter swans have recently been spotted in Yaphank, he added. DANA SHAW
on Jan 5, 2011