Yellow Pages
FIR ISLAND — Six protected swans, four trumpeter and two tundra, have been killed on Fir Island over the past seven weeks — possibly the most killed in recent years.
At least one of the trumpeters was poached, state wildlife officers said. A seventh trumpeter was killed early last week when it flew into a power line.
The six shot swans were killed between Nov. 15 and New Year’s Day, said Officer Jeff Lee of the Washington Division of Fish and Wildlife. It may be one of the worst years for hunting-related swan mortality on Fir Island, which is in the Skagit River delta.
“I’ve been on (Fir Island) for six years and that’s the most I can recall,” Lee said.
In Washington state, it is illegal to hunt swans; however, their resemblance to snow geese has resulted in hunters occasionally shooting them. The smaller snow geese have shorter necks and black wing tips, and wingspans that are 1 to 2 feet shorter than swans. Snow goose season will close Jan. 25.
“You just don’t pull the trigger if there is a protected species,” Lee said.
But on Thursday, two men in a silver van appear to have gone gunning for a swan.
The two men parked the van on Skagit City Road and used a .22-caliber rifle to kill a trumpeter, Lee said. The men then snatched up the bird’s carcass and drove from the scene. The poaching incident occurred in a cornfield near the Lutheran church on Fir Island Road, he said.
Because the two men were shooting toward Fir Island Road, the bullet, which could have traveled up to a quarter of a mile, could have easily struck a vehicle or person on Fir Island Road, Lee said.
An Anacortes man and a Whidbey Island man were hunting nearby and reported the swan poaching at 2:43 p.m. Thursday, Lee said. The van was a Toyota or Chevrolet, and the two men were white, in their mid-30s and dressed in jeans and sweatshirts.
Lee said that witnesses indicated the two men were aiming to get a swan. The quieter and relatively small .22-caliber rifle is the choice of poachers. It’s illegal to use a rifle to hunt waterfowl, he said.
Lee asks anyone with information about the swan shootings to call the State Patrol, which dispatches wildlife officers, at 360-757-1175.
The trumpeter swan is the largest waterfowl in North America, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The trumpeter’s average wingspan is slightly longer than 61⁄2 feet, and the tundra swan’s wingspan is 51⁄2 feet. The swans that winter on the Pacific Coast, such as in Skagit County, likely migrated from Alaska, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Witness statements indicate that four of the shot swans appear to be victims of hunters who mistook them for snow geese, Lee said. In the sixth swan shooting, Lee said that he hasn’t found a witness, leaving investigators at a loss as to the reason it was shot.
Marta Murvosh can be reached at 360-416-2149 or .
Read more local news in the Skagit Valley Herald and the Anacortes American, or read it online in the E-edition
