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Distinguishing swans from snow geese is black and white

Snow geese take flight over a farmer's field inthe Skagit Valley, where thousands of the wintering birds can cause serious damage to crops. (File Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
By Rich Landers richl@spokesman.com(509) 459-5508
Snow geese take flight over a farmer's field inthe Skagit Valley, where thousands of the wintering birds can cause serious damage to crops. (File Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Snow geese take flight over a farmer's field inthe Skagit Valley, where thousands of the wintering birds can cause serious damage to crops. (File Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

WILDLIFE WATCHING — Should a hunter ever be excused for killing a trumpeter swan he misidentified as a snow goose?

Probably not.

Here are three notable reasons from Rich Myhre of the Everett Herald:

  1. Because of their white color, trumpeter swans look a little bit like snow geese. But trumpeter swans are entirely white, while snow geese have black wing tips.
  2. Trumpeter swans measure 6-8 feet from wing tip to wing tip, while snow geese measure only about 3 feet.
  3. Most important, snow geese can be hunted during waterfowl season, but there is never a legal time to shoot trumpeter swans.

For additional information about identifying swans, go to www.trumpeterswansociety.org .

* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "Outdoors Blog." Read all stories from this blog