I wish to clear up some misconceptions in my friend, John Haas's, recent post.
> The article infers that an established breeding population must exist before the species will be accepted by NYSARC. The article John refers to is "Guidelines for the Admission of Exotic Species to the New York State Checklist", available at this link: http://www.nybirds.org/KBsearch/y2007v57n1/y2007v57n1p9-11nysarc.pdf. While John's statement above (after the right arrow) is true, he goes on to imply that the statement means that there must be an established breeding population within NY. The reason for this misinterpretation is unclear to me but, in any case, it is patently NOT true. Eurasian Collared-Dove is an example of an exotic species that NY has accepted based upon established breeding populations in other States. The article above states, on Kingbird p. 9 : "... the admission of a particular exotic species to the New York State Checklist depends further on either the presence of established populations within the state, or on the natural occurrence within the state of individuals derived from an established population elsewhere." And, on Kingbird p. 11: "Established populations of exotic species in neighboring states will be regarded as potential sources of natural dispersants or vagrants to New York State. Such records may be accepted by NYSARC if they are judged to be derived from the established source rather than a non-established population or recently released captive birds." > There could be much discussion about this species, but one thing that is clear from our records is that naturally occurring migrants and vagrants have been arriving from the Ontario population for many years. Some of these birds have remained to start their own breeding populations, which if I read correctly, are on the verge of being established in New York in their own right. For the most part, there is little evidence to suggest that birds from Ontario have remained to nest in NY. If anyone has any evidence of that being the case, we would appreciate hearing about it. The NY breeding population does not seem to be on the verge on becoming established in NY. There are essentially two breeding areas - one in the Perch River WMA in Jefferson County and one in Wayne County. For several years only one or two long-lived pairs have bred in the Perch River area and it is unclear if any cygnets have lived to fledging (the young sometimes have deformities). The origin of these swans is unknown. There are a few nests in Wayne County every year but few young birds have been documented to survive to fledging. These swans are derived from a private reserve in this county, which has breeding Trumpeter Swans. The young and most breeding pairs at the reserve are not pinioned. These breeding swans are not from the Ontario population. > Ontario has met the criteria to declare the species as established and has considered it thus since 2007. I would be interested to know if there are other instances when NYSARC has not accepted another state, province or country's decision on whether or not a species is established. NY has written guidelines for accepting exotic species onto the checklist - see the link above - which are clearly different than the criteria used by the Ontario Bird Records Committee. To repeat what Andy Guthrie has already pointed out, it is true that Ontario has accepted Trumpeter Swan on their list based upon their opinion that the population there is self-sustaining but in the opinion of NYSARC, it is not clear that there has been a long-enough period of self-sufficient breeding success to consider such a long-lived species truly established. Trumpeter Swans can live for 20-30 years, so many of the wild born birds are most likely still only first or second generation. The existing population in Ontario has been supplemented by continued introductions until as recently as 2006, and a large portion of the population has been sustained in winter by supplemental feeding programs. It's not clear how well the population will thrive without these human interventions. I cannot answer John's implied question above but perhaps more salient is that NY is not the only records committee that does not consider Trumpeter Swan to be established outside of the west - New Jersey and Florida are two others. Good birding, Willie D'Anna, NYSARC -----Original Message----- From: bounce-7622403-3714...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-7622403-3714...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of vanh...@citlink.net Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2010 5:10 PM To: New York Birds Subject: [nysbirds-l] Trumpeter Swans This is a bit of a late chime in, but here is my opinion on the Trumpeter Swans. I read with interest the discussion of Trumpeter Swans in New York State. It has been ten years since I observed my first Trumpeter Swan in New York, and I have had several subsequent observations since that time. Each year the question of countability comes up among the observers. I read the article provided by Andy Guthrie and the NYSARC criteria for acceptance of species to the state list. The article infers that an established breeding population must exist before the species will be accepted by NYSARC. This is of course not a criteria for a species to be accepted to the New York list or many species would never have been added. Vagrants and range expansion individuals are regularly accepted to our list. There could be much discussion about this species, but one thing that is clear from our records is that naturally occurring migrants and vagrants have been arriving from the Ontario population for many years. Some of these birds have remained to start their own breeding populations, which if I read correctly, are on the verge of being established in New York in their own right. Ontario has met the criteria to declare the species as established and has considered it thus since 2007. I would be interested to know if there are other instances when NYSARC has not accepted another state, province or country's decision on whether or not a species is established. We currently have at least one bird present and seen by multiple observers to be a tagged individual from an accepted established population outside the United States. There is no question of provenance. . In my humble opinion, the appropriate action for NYSARC to take is to add Trumpeter Swan to the New York State list. I certainly hope that reports will be filed on this bird to ensure that happens. John Haas ---------------- Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com http://www.betsypottersart.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
