[Maine-birds] Mute Swans of Winnegance Creek - the plot thickens

Last year (2014) the pair of swans was seen flying off into the wild blue yonder on Oct 11, after spending much of the summer entertaining Maine birders. Two months later (mid-Dec) I chatted with a carpenter working on the Winnegance General Store, who told me one of the swans was killed when it hit a power line "before the creek froze up". In other words fairly recently, but he was vague about precise date. A game warden was summoned so I suppose there's a public record??

Now it gets mysterious. My wife, Cindy, teaches a few classes at the "Y". She found an unaddressed envelope in her mailbox there, containing a photo of a very large, very dead, swan. Ventral side only, so can't comment on the color of the bill. But way too big to be anything but a Mute. Have no idea where this photo came from. No names, no dates. But the guy (unknown) holding up the bird in the photo is dressed in serious winter garb, so I'm guessing the death certificate on this bird is December something. I have no idea the disposition of this dead bird. And still don't know who put the photo in Cindy's mailbox, or how he knew to do that??

So I don't think there's good evidence that the dead bird was one of the original pair. I also doubt the bird was electrocuted, probably simply flew into a wire and broke its neck or something. Doesn't a bird have to be touching two wires to be electrocuted?? Too bad we can't have a look at the top of the bill.

I saw one of the new three this afternoon. Its bill is decidedly bright, dense orange, but it has only a vague knob on its top. The other two were out of sight. Detailed obs would be helpful.

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