Disappeared Mute Swans in Maryland

[s byrd]

Im wondering if anyone has some details about the disappeared Mute Swans of Maryland . I found 2 yesterday and while id like to post them on ebird im worried to as the Swan Killers may locate and kill them ! Upon my species search on ebird im seeing that any Swans reports since 2010 are not appearing and i know there have been reports because i did one myself ONE i say . If the answer is to help the bay please explain (Hows that working for ya ?)

Happy New birding Year !
Saundra Byrd
baltimore

[Jls...@aol.com]

 

eBird has lots of Mute Swan reports since 2010. Here is a map.

 

http://ebird.org/ebird/map/mutswa?neg=true&env.minX=&env.minY=&env.maxX=&env.maxY=&zh=false&gp=false&ev=Z&mr=1-12&bmo=1&emo=12&yr=range&byr=2010&eyr=2016

 

The only ones not showing are known ornamental birds [like in Hagerstown City Park] or pinioned bird [like Fulton Pond]

 

Jim Stasz

North Beach MD

jls...@aol.com

 

--
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Group 'Maryland & DC Birding'.
To view group guidelines or change email preferences, visit this group on the web at http://www.mdbirding.com
Unfamiliar with a hotspot mentioned on this list? Quickly locate it here - http://www.mdbirding.com/hotspot.html

[s byrd]

Thanks so much Jim ! Not sure why my search came up with nothing past 2010 . I clicked on several locations for Mute Swans and no reports past 2010 . Wonder if my Swans at Home Depot pond rt 40 Edgewood were ornamentals then ? Well glad to see they are still here . Great !
So then i found 2 exhausted Mute Swans (ornamentals ? ) yesterday at Turf Valley Golf course Howard county .

Saundra Byrd
baltimore

[Joe Hanfman]

Saundra
The two Mute Swans at Turf Valley are domestic pets. They have been there for years. One year they even built a nest. Both are females according to their permit.

Joe Hanfman
Columbia, MD

[Bird couple]

Saundra: they are getting harder to find. There is one right now at Depot Pond in Upper Marlboro. It's been a regular visitor in recent years.

Good birding
Warren Strobel
Annapolis

Sent from my iPhone

[s byrd]

Joe cannot believe ive missed the Swans here at the Golf course . Ive checked carefully for birds when going thru here in the last year . How you like that ??? Two females ! Very interesting ! Will they ever find their male ?
sbyrd

[Steve Long]

Mute Swan populations have definitely decreased in the mid-Chesapeake Bay area.  I think that is due to a concerted effort by DNR to eliminate an "invasive, non-native species" that is "damaging submerged aquatic vegetation" in the Bay.  At least, I know that they have adled eggs on nests near hear and actually shot a female of a long-established nesting pair near here.  While we used to see several pairs with established territories in the local waters and encounted many more pairs when anchored in creeks while cruising on our sailboat, recently we have been seeing NONE.

 

As for whether that is really helping the Bay or other species, I don't know.  I have noticed that the water in our creek was less murky and had aquatic vegetation that lasted most of the summer, whereas before it disappeared by the end of spring.  Maybe that is the absense of the Mutes, or maybe it is due to a reduction in nutrient loading.  I don't have water quality data to check the latter hypothesis.  I did see a muskrat eating the submerged vegetation as fast as he could gather it and get back up on a log, but he did not seem to clear it out.

 

As for other birds, in the early 1980s, before we had many Mute Swans in this area, we would get visits from flocks of Whistling (now Tundra) Swans.  About the time that the Mutes became established here, we stopped seeing ANY Tundra Swans.  And, they have not returned here since the Mutes vanished.  MAYBE that is related to the Mute population, but we have also seen shifts in the species of ducks that stop by the cove here each year.  For decades, I NEVER saw a single Hooded Merganser in our cove, but in recent years, they have become increasingly numerous, to the point that this year, that is ALL we have seen so far, but they are plentiful.  In past years, we had Buffleheads and Ruddy Ducks in large numbers almost all of the time, along with frequent visits by Common and Red Breasted Mergansers, Scaup and occasional Golden Eyes.  So, whether the Mutes had been a cause of species shift is also an open question.  Most likely true for the Tundra Swans, but who really knows?  The Canada Geese and Common Loons have never waivered in local populations, here.

 

Steve Long

(Oxford)