Exotics in Anne Arundel County, MD: Update

Phil Davis (pdavis@ix.netcom.com)
Sun, 31 Jan 1999 14:41:13 -0500


The second bird, with the Black Swan, is an Egyptian Goose.  Sorry for the
confusion.  

A construction worker from a nearby site said that these birds and another
one, now gone (sounded sort of like a Mute Swan description) flew in "about
a week ago" when everything was frozen ... there was still open water on
this pond.  [As I recall, the big freeze was more than a week ago ...]

I got photos of both birds.

Phil


******* Original Message *******

Last Monday a coworker described to me a Black Swan at a pond near my
house.  I just got to check it out this morning.  It is a Black Swan.  It's
in the pond at the intersection of Rutland Road with MD Route 450 (SE
corner).  I guess this is technically Gambrills, MD although it's really
closer to Davidsonville or Crofton.  The intersection is about 1/2 way
between Staples Corner (Rt 450--Defense Hwy and Rt 424--Davidsonville Rd)
and Annapolis Mall (MD Rt 450 and Generals Hwy). 

This year there seems to have been a rash of sightings of these
short-distant migrants that are indigenous to Australia and New Zealand.
These are most certainly not true "wild" birds but are escapees or
releasees from exotic waterfowl collections.

I'll copy Mark Hoffman and Glenn Therres on this message ... I don't know
if DNR would want to intervene and relocate the bird or not.

BTW, there was a second duck in the vegetation on the edge of the pond,
that I did not immediately recognize, so I assumed it was a second exotic
that someone dumped and just quickly mentally noted a few key field marks
so I could look it up when I got home this evening.  However, I was
surprised to not find an exotic species to match it in my Waterfowl (of the
world) book.  Maybe it's a hybrid or a misplaced species--as I recall, it
actually reminded me more of an Oldsquaw than anything else.  I'll go back
and check it out in the morning.

Phil


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Phil Davis

home:	PDavis@ix.netcom.com	Davidsonville, Maryland	USA
work:		PDavis@OAO.com        	Greenbelt, Maryland		USA
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