Hi Everybody,

I have been reading the lively discussion on the countability of the 
Schoolhouse Pond Trumpeter Swan with interest. These are legitimate 
issues for birders to discuss and I hope Norm will allow the commentary 
to proceed.

As far as I am concerned the swan in question is countable according to 
your own listing ethics. I personally would not count it until the 
Ontario population has been around a lot longer. Swans are long-lived, 
their populations build up but slowly, and it would take a fairly minor 
environmental disaster to wipe them out at present. However I am not 
your list policeman, I can only police my own. If the Ontario Records 
Committee has arbitrarily declared the southern Ontario population 
established and self-sustaining that can be used as justification to add 
a bird from that population to your list.

Some listing history - for a short time in the 1980s there was a 
movement, mostly restricted to California, to count no introduced birds 
on birding life lists. The rationale was that invasive introduced 
organisms are often environmental disasters and counting birds with such 
an origin was akin to promoting the introduction of noxious invasive 
species for recreational purposes. At the time there had been rumors 
that birders had released birds in hopes of being able to count them; a 
specific example I recall was a European Goldfinch in the Northeast. The 
"No Introduced Birds" movement died out, birders in other states found 
it far too fastidious and purist an approach to birding and listing. A 
lingering effect of this is the California Record Committee's reluctance 
to countenance many introduced birds with long-term breeding 
populations, e.g. the Red-masked and Mitred Parakeets of Telegraph Hill. 
I still feel those folks in the Golden State had a point. There is a 
desire among birders to welcome any new bird regardless of origin. 
Witness the excitement over the Eurasian Collared-Dove in Frederick 
County. To their credit however, most birders appear to have never given 
in to cheer-leading  for bird introductions or to introducing birds on 
their own.

The Trumpeter Swan is distressing because it's an exception. Otherwise 
responsible waterfowl biologists and birders are promoting this species 
before they have determined its impact. Some suspect that declines of 
many smaller native waterfowl and the Common Moorhen are related to the 
introduction of Mute Swan (174 Maryland/DC atlas blocks 2002-2006 vs. 60 
in 1983-1987) and  Canada Goose (now in 1020 atlas blocks vs. 402 in the 
1980s) into the ponds and wetlands of the Northeast. How is the 
Trumpeter Swan going to affect an already bad situation for wetland birds?

Finally the examples of House Sparrow, European Starling, and Rock 
Pigeon as robust introductions, not subject to extirpation, may yet 
prove premature. The Rock Pigeon appears to have retreated from some of 
its nesting range in Maryland over the last twenty years (879 blocks 
2002-2006 versus 990 in 1983-1987) and had a much lower breeding 
confirmation rate, and the House Sparrow has been declining in BBS data 
for over three decades (indeed it has declined since the advent of the 
automobile), the only species in the Big Three that seems to be holding 
its own without question is the starling. The House Finch also suffered 
a recent steep population decline due to mycoplasma conjunctivitis, but 
this seems only a setback; the House Finch appears to be here to stay. 
The best example of the checkered fates of introduced birds is Hawaii, 
where many species that seemed established just a few decades ago are 
now rare or extirpated. Introduced birds in general are often more prone 
to extinction than natives; however a few prove very successful and 
become invasives.

Introduced birds are found in the birdlife of most populated places on 
Earth. It is important to study them and to understand how they interact 
with the native wildlife and ecology. It is not wrong to count them on 
bird lists. Starlings and their ilk, for better or worse, are common and 
integral to our avifauna. We should acknowledge their existence on our 
lists. But let us not lose sight of why it is a  mistake to promote them 
over our native wildlife.

P.S. Cattle Egret is almost certainly not an introduced species, it 
appears to have invaded South America on its own in the late 19th 
Century. The rest of the Americas followed over the next century.

Sorry for long rant, let's get back to birding,

Walter Ellison

23460 Clarissa Rd
Chestertown, MD 21620

phone: 410-778-9568

e-mail: rossgull(AT)baybroadband.net

"Nothing is as easy as you would like it to be, and nothing is as hard 
as you might fear"