SEQUIM — State Department of Fish & Wildlife biologists are awaiting the results of lab tests that could determine if dead trumpeter swans found in January in the Dungeness Valley were poisoned by ingesting lead shot.
Fish & Wildlife investigators, meanwhile, still seek the person or people who shot and killed a trumpeter swan sometime in January.
“Liver samples from all five birds from January were shipped off to the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Pullman, and we are awaiting the test results from them,” said Shelly Ament, wildlife biologist with state Fish & Wildlife on the Olympic Peninsula.
Ament said after further investigation that it did not appear that the trumpeter swan she collected at a pond near Woodcock Road and west of Kitchen-Dick Road was shot within the week she found it.
Bird underweight
She found the bird Jan. 31, after it was reported to her by a property owner.
The swan that was shot weighed 13.66 pounds with a wingspan of 6½ feet.
Normally, Ament said, a swan would weigh between 21 to 30 pounds.
Trumpeter swans, the largest waterfowl in North America, are federally protected wildlife and cannot be hunted.
“It is possible and very likely that it was not shot at the particular place where it was found dead,” she said, adding that the bird could have been shot elsewhere and later flew to the pond to rest.
The Mill Creek-based Trumpeter Swan Society is offering a reward of $500 to the person whose information leads to the arrest and conviction of the shooter or shooters, said Martha Jordan, a wildlife biologist with the society.
Contributing?
If anyone wants to contribute to the fund, they may do so by sending a check to P.O. Box 272, 914 S.E. 164th St., Mill Creek, WA, 98012.
Another swan was found at the same pond Jan. 28, but it had not been shot and possibly could have died from the ingestion of lead.
Metal fragments were found in the X-ray of the bird, Ament said.
There was not another swan nearby when she collected the dead swan Jan. 31 that was shot.
Swans collected in January included three that died in the 3 Crabs Road area and two in a pond off Woodcock Road, east of Kitchen-Dick Road.
Correcting details
To correct information previously reported in the Peninsula Daily News, Ament did not state that a dead swan was found at Dungeness Farms at Dungeness Bay. She said Matt Heins from Dungeness Farms Hunting Club assisted her with collecting one of the sick swans and one that later died.
“The Dungeness Farms Hunting Club has shown serious concern about the death of the swans and has even offered to pay for the X-rays taken,” Ament said.
She said there have been seven swans found dead since November in the Dungeness Valley area — one an unknown cause of death, one by electrocution and five dead swans found in January.
Of those five, four were possibly poisoned by ingestion of lead, and the fifth one was found to be shot but the ingestion of lead might have also been a factor in its death, she said.
“The good new is I’ve not had any reports of any sick or dead swans for this month,” Ament said Friday.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.