Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 20:58:17 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: Shooting of Trumpeter Swan In-Reply-To: <3A78183C.E1D6B28@erols.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Fellow birders and conservation-minded friends, We have just heard about a Trumpeter Swan being shot with a pellet gun by a vandal on Sunday. I do not condone this type of vandalism. These birds ought to be shot by DNR so the job will get done right. Before you attack, hear me out. These birds are as large as Mute Swans and have a similar diet. Mute Swans are destroying sub-aquatic vegetation in the Chesapeake bay as fast as the CBF is planting more. There is no guarantee that these swans will ever learn to migrate. Do we really need another resident species of swan in the bay? I have asked several people about how these birds interact with other waterfowl during the breeding season and although it may exist, I have yet to hear a satisfactory assurance that there will be no negative impacts on our native waterfowl by resident Trumpeter Swans. The best anyone has done is give me the lame claim that Trumpeter Swans formerly wintered in the bay so they belong here and should be reintroduced. I'm sorry; they are wrong. Firstly, my concern is mainly with RESIDENT Trumpeter Swans. The Chesapeake has never had RESIDENT swans. And even if it did, this bay is just a shadow of the bay we had here two centuries ago when Trumpeter Swans MAY have spent the winter. It is not at all obvious that the bay can support a population of Trumpeter Swans. Secondly, I said MAY have spent the winter. There are records of Trumpeter Swans from the tidal Potomac but I know of no solid evidence that Trumpeter Swans have EVER wintered on the Maryland portion of the bay. And we plan to introduce (not reintroduce) the LARGEST herbivore into the bay while Mute Swans and Nutria are doing massive damage to the bay's marshes at a time when we are trying to restore these very marshes to improve the bay's water quality. Usually when exotics become established in an area (House Sparrows, Starlings,...) there are massive unforeseen and usually bad consequences. If there isn't a law against this kind of behavior, there should be. Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, PG MD USA mozurk@bellAtlantic.net On Wed, 31 Jan 2001, Paula Sullivan wrote: > I imagine most of you have already read the distressing news in today's > WASHINGTON POST about the shooting by pellet gun on Sunday of one of the > 10 Trumpeter Swans that had been released on January 18 at the Horsehead > Wetlands Center in Grasonville. An act of vandalism is suspected. > Remembering my disappointment in not being able to catch a glimpse of > any of the 10 birds when I was there on Saturday, I find it ironic and > heartbreaking that some sick idiot apparently found it easier to locate > one of the birds than I did. > > Paula Sullivan > Alexandria, VA > paulas@erols.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================